Riddles Are Meant To Be Solved
by shainarae
Summary: Hermione, desperate and alone, is sent to the past to reset the present. The question is, how will she do it, and will she ever get back to her own time? Watch as Hermione battles her own Riddles.
1. The Last Battle

**A/U: Hello everyone, I replaced the real chapter with this beta remade one done by Applesfalling. Please review! **

Chapter One: The Last Battle

The war raged on around Hermione as she stood there taking it all in. How could it be possible that they were already losing? It had begun so quickly, but things were progressing too fast. Tonks and Lupin were the first ones to go as they saved Ginny from a certain Potions Professor. After he had killed Dumbledore, Snape quickly turned to Lord Voldemort's side without a hint of hesitation. Shooting a nasty dark curse at Snape, they began to duel with no mercy. He shot a spell at her that she did not recognize, and it being too fast to send up a protective barrier, she agilely jumped to the side. The spell passed her in a rush of yellow, sending her hair in a frenzy as she came to a stop. Their eyes met but didn't waver as they cast a non-ending amount of different spells.

Sweat trickled down Hermione's face and wiping it onto her robes sleeve, she cast an Expelliarmus charm just after Snape cried out Sectumsempra. His curse looked as if it was in slow motion as it sped towards her form and it was too late to dodge. Hermione was thrown back from the impact of the spell onto her right shoulder causing something within her arm to crack from the sheer amount of pressure put upon it. She grunted from the pain but quickly thought _Ferula_, and bandages sprung up and wrapped around her arm. It was a ghetto fix, having no time for she was in the middle of a battle; what else could she have done with everything happening around her? They both ducked as a spell launched itself over their heads, cast by Lestrange, who was currently dueling with Harry. The Boy Who Lived glowered while screaming "Avada Kedavra!" From this war, it was conditioned within them that it was kill or be killed. Lestrange crippled to the dirty ground without saying another single word and Harry didn't even stop to think about it as he started to duel with someone else. The recent wars most definitely taught everyone that there was no mercy when it came to fighting for what they believed in. This was what pushed the Golden Trio to start casting Dark Magic and the Unforgivable spells. They would never pull through if they were outsmarted in any way.

The next thing Hermione knew was that Snape screamed, thrashing around in pain as he tumbled to the floor with finality, the light draining from his eyes. Hermione turned gratefully to see Ron nod at her, a gesture that told her that he had her back. Ron then proceeded to turn and go back to fighting Lucius Malfoy. Over the years, Ron had grown to love Hermione, but things changed for her when her own family had been murdered in front of her. There was no room for any thought of love, not when it could be used against you. Although, she did not love Ron the same way he did her. Don't get her wrong, there is still a deep sense of care for her good friend and she'll never loose that. Yet, that was exactly why it crushed her upon seeing him die.

When Ron turned back to continue fighting, Lucius yelled "Crucio," and Ron had no time to move, falling to the floor in a heap with his screams bouncing off of everything in sight. Ron wailed and screeched upon the ground, withering as every part of his body burning from the inside out. He scratched at his arms, digging his nails into his own skin as though it couldn't be satisfied and he itched with even more fever. Blood eventually tore through the ripped skin, burying underneath his nails as the itch spread throughout his body. It eventually reached his head and Ron grasped his hair and began yanking it like an insane person, but that didn't help minimize his need to relieve himself of the pain, the itching and burning within him.

"**No**!" Hermione cried out in horror, running towards the contorted body of Ron and thinking, _Everte Statum_, causing Lucius to be thrown backwards and land upon the ground in a heap. Before she could do a thing for Ron,help him, heal him, he slipped too far out of her reach and slowly died just like the rest of her friends. _They're all dead except for a very select few, if that_, Hermione thought as she looked across the battlefield. She gazed into Ron's blank eyes and expected a scream to rip from her throat, tear up, or go crazy with the weight that was put upon her shoulders, but nothing happened. Hermione had been battle hardened over the course of having to fight and there was no way she will let things get to her now of all times. Definitely not now when she had to finish the impossible task set upon her group, but that was if Harry failed, and all hopes were that he would annihilate Voldemort at this final battle. For the sake of all those that had given their lives, Hermione begged the gods to shine down on them and allow them to win for one last time.

"Lacarnum Inflamarae Maxima!" A fireball streamed from the tip of her wand and flew into Lucius, being fueled by her rage of one of her friends deaths. He screamed about how dirty mud bloods should all die, but he finally gave his last shuttering breath before giving into the cold embrace of death. It serves him right for torturing Ron, for hurting Ginny, for causing so much pain throughout their lives. Hermione would never be able to tell Ron that she loved him like a brother, that she was glad to have been his friend and she just hoped that she would get the chance to tell Harry before it was too late.

Hermione stiffened as she felt a cold tip of a wand digging painfully into her neck and heard whom she presumed to be Bellatrix Lestrange's chilling laugh. "Who do we have here? A stupid, pitiful mud blood trying to fight a war she can't win," with another laugh she continued on with her speach, "I'll teach you not to mess with us Pure Bloods."

Then with a harsh order she made Hermione turn to face her before smiling evilly. With her wand helplessly at her side she knew that there would not be enough time to disarm Bellatrix before she was killed.

"Crucio," Lestrange laughed hysterically as she said it. Blinding pain clouded Hermione's mind as she sank to the floor upon her hands and knees. It took all her strength not to give her torturer the pleasure of seeing her scream or beg. Tears fell from her eyes as she began to give up on all hope of ever getting out of this endless numbness. Time seemed to slow down considerably, her heavy breathing was the only thing she could hear and Hermione's nails dug into the palms of her hands, creating half moons in her palm. Ron's face appeared in her mind, and she questioned what he'd say if he found her on the floor crying like a Slytherin.

"That's what you get for killing my husband you _Filthy Mud blood_." Bellatrix snarled while taking hold of Hermione's arm and shoving one of her sleeves up as far as it could go. The old scar of mud blood stood out painfully upon Hermione's pale skin, causing a pain wrenching feeling at the corners of her heart as her eyes found it once again.

"I'll teach you to mess with me. Dirty blood," Bellatrix snapped before Hermione puckered her lips and spit into her tormenters face. Bellatrix screamed in anger and disgust as she wiped away the spit with pure menace in her eyes. She then whispered a spell and began laughing as the old letters started to appear brighter and looked like they were crawling up and down Hermione's arm like beetles. At this point Hermione couldn't stop herself from screeching in pain, tears sliding down her dirt streaked face as she tried to regain her dignity. Yet the carvings on her arm grew deeper as Bellatrix carved over them again and again. Blood soaked through her sweater and jeans as a puddle began to form around them, but that wasn't what she truly took notice in. There was already the unimaginable pain coming from Bellatrix's wand as she wrote over and over on the same scar, along with adding words on other limbs upon her body ,but that wasn't as bad as what Bellatrix did next.

"Delecaran," she heard coming from her enemy's lips, her wand pressed to Hermione's stomach. Fire seemed to spew from the tip of the wand and into her abdomen as it inched deeper into her skin with every second. As it did so, it felt like her insides were being squished with each and every second that passed, resulting in Hermione not being able to breathe. When Bellatrix withdrew her wand, Hermione felt the pressure and pain ebb away for now and it allowed her to breathe once again. Bellatrix then proceeded to other parts of Hermione's body, putting pressure on her wand in several places of Hermione's body, each time leaving a spot white like a scar with tendrils of white stretching away from it. How big the tendrils were depended on how long she left it there, no matter how many time she felt that piercing gut-wrenching pain it never became easier to take.

With renewed strength that came out of possibly nowhere, she finally saw what she was looking for. With Bellatrix in the ebb of the flow of concentration on the spell she was about to cast, it created an opening to strike. Reacting faster than she thought possible, Hermione's leg that was once close to her chest swept out, kicking Bellatrix to the floor and knocking the breath out of her. If she was going to be called a mudblood, then she might as well fight like one. Who was she to deny her heritage? Hermione was a mudblood and always will be, there was no shame in being one and that's why she was fighting in this war today. Ending discrimination and hate created by Voldemort was something that she needed to end so the good people out there might live a life without all those problems. Though she also knew that without the dark, there wouldn't be light and no matter what the good side did, there will always be someone out there that will disagree with them.

Hermione scrambled on top of Bellatrix with a frenzy and pulling her head up by her long messy black hair, she smashed it into a piece of rubble from Hogwarts. Tumbling off the woman, she began crawling towards the figure that her wand dropped near and yanking the wand up from the ground, she turned and pointed it at Bellatrix before whispering,"Avada Kedavra."

The bright green light shot out of the wand and hit Bellatrix before she could even get the chance to fight back. Hermione moved on as she noticed the mask of pain and hate slide away from her opponents face, there was no time to regret what she had just done. Sanity had decided to leave her a long time ago, after the first time she spoke those words. Once someone leaves the naive world and transitions into one full of evil that curdle ones' blood, there was no turning back. This path was only for the strong of heart, and that was the perfect definition of most Gryffindors. So no, Hermione would not back down, ever. It was not in her to give up, if she even began to think about it, her calm, collected features would falter and she'd go crazy from the guilt.

Even though she hated it, there was no time to dawdle around, so she just got right back into the fight, leaving the body forgotten next to the love of her life, Ron. Pulling out two evenly matched short blades from sheaths upon her legs, Hermione centered when she felt the blades in her hands. These two blades had been created especially for her, with her core magic, by the help of Dumbledore back in her 6th year at Hogwarts the School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. How were they made you might ask?

Dumbledore had taken her in for special training sessions when she was younger for unknown reasons, but her love for information blinded her to the reason's as of why she was doing such violent practices. Although when Voldemort started attacking them, Hermione soon realized what their destinies were; to save the world. Though most of that pressure channeled straight to Harry while she was the one who solved most of the mysteries and such.

They each had their own part to play. Hermione not only learned advanced magic, she also learned physical things such as karate or kick boxing (although they were in the later years). She spun in between fighting wizards and sliced the back part of Dolohov's right knee. Blood squirted down to the ground in a puddle as he screamed and he turned to see Hermione bring her other blade up and strike out, smoothly slicing clean across his neck, ending his life in a gurgle of blood. There were many more just like him that went down, but in some instances, she was forced to use her wand when she wasn't close enough to the Death Eaters.

Just as fast as the fighting began, it came to a stop as Harry and Voldemort circled each other like vultures eying a dead carcase. Voldemort's pale, slimy skin stood out against the darkness that seemed to flow around him. His magic crackling and sparking in the air, highlighting the tension that spun around everyone. The Dark Lord oozed pure power and strength and all hope in winning this war seemed doomed. Yet, Harry stood there with a grim smile on his face, determination set in stone, like a burning candle in the dark that lit ones way.

Harry, braver than she could ever be, stood there taking in every move just as Voldemort did to him. Not only was this a battle; it was a dance to the death. They waved their wands almost like they were mirroring each others movements, black orbs flashing here and there. Several dark spells missed both of them as Harry blocked and attacked. They both started a pattern and continued in that same rhythm for quite a while. The air was tense with stress and many held their breaths as it suddenly changed. Voldemort raised his wand high and screeched, "Avada Kedavra."

Harry's own spell followed a few seconds too late. Hermione's feet had already been moving across the space that was between her and her friend before she could comprehend even doing so. The Unforgivable curse hit its mark, sending Hermione soaring through the air, suspended in time as the green light struck the golden hourglass that was around her neck.

Many things happened at once; everything around Hermione seemed to stop, and the glass burst open, causing the sand to spill out and fly around. The Unforgivable Spell had hit her, just like she intended it to and she flew back and hit an unsuspecting Harry. They both tumbled back and once she hit the ground, she tried to stand up but to no avail.

While on her knees she thought, _there's no going back now, the deed was already done_. Her death was already set in stone. Harry pulled her close mumbling something along the lines of 'I could have handled it Hermione, don't you leave me now too'. The blackened sky looked eerily beautiful, the black and green clouds flashing pure white with every lightning bolt cast down, an almost serene way to die. Wind whipped through Hermione's hair, sending it in all directions along with caressing her face as she wished her mother would be able to once more. Even time seemed to have slowed down, like it wouldn't be able to affect her anymore, but that was a bit too fanciful for her. It was too late for her to apologize, though she wasn't particularly sorry anyhow, but her eye lids were already closing. The world swayed around Hermione, she took a shaking breath and dropped into unconsciousness. _At least she could save one of her friends_, she thought, _at least one._ All thoughts left her as her mind sunk back into itself, away from the pain, and the hate, and the hunger of death.

XXX

The light behind her eyelids was glaringly white as she peeled open her eyes and shot up. Harry, was her immediate thought. Had they survived? How? All of them had given up on hope, the delusion that they would get through the war. Voldemort had grown too powerful, his hold on the world too strong. Even if they had managed to defeat him, which would be no easy task, the war would still go on. Even though someone cuts the head off a snake, it would still squirm before letting go of the world. Once Voldemort was gone, the Death Eaters would still fight, maybe with even more vigor at the death of their master. And Hermione knew that they wouldn't have enough strength to fight on after the last battle. There had been so many losses before she had fallen into darkness and she wondered how many had even survived. What actually didn't make sense was that she couldn't have been the only one hurt, so why was Hermione the only one in the Hospital Wing?

Shaking off those pointless thoughts, she sat in concentration, thinking of what was happening. Even if Harry was to survive, how did she? Hermione had seen the green light that had struck her, so why wasn't she dead in a morgue somewhere by now? _Ah, that's it_, she thought suddenly. The killing curse hit the hourglass, the time turner, maybe that's why she survived. Thinking about it, she put her hand where the time turner was, but didn't find it. Searching frantically, she felt a distinct burning on her chest when her fingers grazed the place where the time turner had once been. Gasping, her fingers gripped her hospital clothing, digging in tightly as the pain slowly eased away. Hermione then ripped it open to find something she did not expect. Just like the scar Harry has on his forehead, there lay a lightning bolt scar right between her collarbone. That wasn't a good sign, that scar meant she had survived the killing curse so it didn't really help her figure out more on her situation. It wasn't only because of Harry that she knew that, in several books she had read previously there where chapters on the significance of such Dark scars. Plus all down her arms and some on her legs and stomach were degrading words such as _mud blood_ and _dirty_ from the torture Bellatrix put her through. All of it reminded her of Harry and Ron, and she thought of all the good memories they shared together as children, and the ones they wouldn't be able to share.

The scars were not the only damage that she had taken in that fight, where she had previously wrapped her arm, sat a clean bandaged brace wound tightly to give her support. Hermione's arm must have broken along with a couple of her fingers seeing that both her arm and fingers were wrapped up. The Sectumsempra curse's impact must have broken it, because just above the broken arm were several deep cuts slashing from her upper shoulder to the top of her right breast. Her abdomen was covered with cuts and bruises and for some reason, it seemed like nothing on her body didn't go undamaged in some way.

On the desk next to her bed sat her two blades Jinsi and Metsi, plus Hermione's broken wand. She blanched, doing a double take on what exactly happened to her wand. It must have gotten broken when she hit Harry and died or almost died anyways. Speaking of which, what was going to happen now? The doorknob wobbled and she quickly shoved her shirt back over her collarbone to cover up the scar before anyone could see it. A skinny woman with plain, motherly features and warm eyes came in the room and spotting Hermione who was awake now, gently let a smile cross over her face.

"Hello, I'm Madam Gamari. How are you feeling?" Behind the woman, a red-headed younger version of Dumbledore stepped in.

Emotions sprang up along with tears as Hermione took in just how weird it was to see someone that had died already alive and kicking. First, she's the only one wounded, and now Dumbledore has spontaneously come back to life in a younger version? This cannot possibly be happening to her. Hermione's gaze sharpened calculatingly, it was hard enough to keep from gasping, but when the twinkle in Dumbledore's eye died just a little at the horror in her eyes, she let a few tears squeeze out before shaking them away. Crying was nonsense, it got people nowhere. She needed to get herself back together, if she cried now she wouldn't be able to stop so as hard as it was she wiped them away and looked at him again.

Hermione knew she should not give away any information until she understood the situation she was in. Could it possibly be that when the killing curse hit the time turner, it had sent her back in time? That was the only logical explanation for how Dumbledore could now be standing in front of her.

"I'm fine, perfectly fine. Other than my arm of course." Hermione finally answered the nurses question. The nurse nodded, checking a few things, and lingered a little before rushing back into her office. Obviously Madam Gamari had more important things to do if her patient was perfectly fine as of right now.

"My dear, what is your name?" Dumbledore's gaze followed Madam Gamari as she went into her office, then snapped back to Hermione.

"Hermione Jean Bellevue. And yours?" The answer wasn't hesitant at all, during these past years the Golden Trio had learned to lie quite well. What with all the secrecy and death surrounding them, it was pretty important to be able to withhold information when someone's getting tortured for knowledge on the whereabouts of Harry or whoever.

"I am Professor Dumbledore. Miss Bellevue, please do tell how you have come to arrive in Hogwarts with very dark curses lingering on you. Now," seeing that Hermione was going to deny that fact, "I know for a fact that to be true, so no use saying it didn't happen. Was it Grindelwald?" The last sentence sparked Hermione's curiosity, since she knew Grindelwald to be dead. So that meant her time traveling theory was indeed correct. Though she had no idea that a witch could travel so far back in time, because Grindelwald was defeated a long time ago. Yeah, Hermione was smart, but time traveling wasn't exactly her specialty. Dumbledore saw that she was debating whether to tell him or not, so he just left her to her own thoughts.

"My Uncle William was killed by dark wizards, it might have been Grindelwald, but I couldn't see any of their faces." For the sake of acting, Hermione started pulling up horrific images of her past to make her cry. Professor Dumbledore's eyes softened, he knew this was a touchy subject for her, it had happened not too long ago after all. "They came at the dead of night, I was asleep when I heard my Uncle screaming. So I rushed to his bedroom brandishing my wand to find five men standing over his… his mutilated body. I managed to fight them off but before long they got past my defenses and as you can plainly see hurt my right shoulder. Also they sort of mutilated my body and threw me around a bit. Knowing it was time to get out of there I apparated, but at the same time someone threw a dark curse that I didn't recognize. My parents… before they died a while ago, told me all about Hogwarts and how it was the safest place to go when I'm in danger, so that's why I apparated here. I can't necessarily explain how I got to the exact place where you found me Professor, since I don't remember anything after that," she finished the sob story with a sniffle, god she was so good at this kind of stuff that even Dumbledore didn't know if she was lying or not.

"I see… I'm sorry for your losses my dear. And the rest of your family?"

"They're all dead sir. All dead!" Hermione actually started crying now, and she wasn't even faking it this time. Her memories flashed before her eyes, it was all too gruesome for her. How would she get back? Did she even want to? Dumbledore saw her start to shake and patted her left shoulder affectionately.

"Hm. Then you shall have to stay here Miss Bellevue, for the time being. I will have to inform Headmaster Dippet of your situation. Then we will have to sort you, and test you of your magical abilities. Ah, that reminds me, what school did you go to when you lived with your Uncle?" Crap, Hermione thought, she hadn't even thought about that.

"Um, my Uncle taught me when my parents died. He's not my legitimate Uncle though, he just found me after they were killed and sort of adopted me. That's why I'm muggle born." The twinkle in his eye had died down even further than before, death wasn't a particularly fun topic to broach. Dumbledore sighed, sat down on the bed on the edge and patted her shoulder.

"If there's ever anything I can do for you Ms. Bellevue just tell me. Of course, it would have to be within school rules." Being back under Dumbledore's protection made Hermione feel safe again, it was nice to see a good friend. The bad thing was that she knew she couldn't tell him what happened or else it would alter everything in this time which would in exchange make everything in the future different. Wait a minute, she thought, isn't that exactly what I should do? This thought perked her up, she could do something about her friends. Sure, it might change the future, or even she might not be born, but at least the world wouldn't be in a horrifying war against Voldemort and the Death Eaters.

"Dumbledore, I don't think…," hmm actually there was something, "well. Would you mind if you taught me please? I know that's what teachers are for, but I want to learn faster than what they can teach me. Please!" The desperation in her voice must of shown because the next thing she knew was that Dumbledore had given in.

"Alright dear. I will teach you, but, if anything I teach you is used on any other student I will not teach you anymore. Or if it is severe enough I will kick you out of the school, although I'm not the Headmaster I do have certain pull within the school. But, you do not look like that type, so yes I will." She smiled and threw her arms around him lovingly.

"Oh thank you so much Dumbledore!" Hermione was definitely grateful that she could see one of her old friends again, things like this didn't happen every day. This was a once and a lifetime chance and she is definitely going to take it for the better of all mankind. The only thing Hermione knew about time traveling was that in a recent discovery, it said that when sent back in time one is sent into a new dimension, or a mirror of her original world. Though now, whatever she did affected the future, but the bad news is that she won't be able to get back to the future. Once she is put into another time line she can't get out. There was absolutely no way back to her loved ones, but she was making a sacrifice. Yet one can only hope that there was a way back.

"Look dear, you have a few days before the students come, but I bet your story will be like fire throughout the school no matter what I do once you're introduced at the feast. So tomorrow we will start our lessons, I'm thinking every four days we'll get together and have a session. First off though you'll need a new wand, you'll have to go to Diagon Alley today with me after you register in the school with Headmaster Dippet. Now let's go see Headmaster Dippet," he helped her up and handed her new shoes and clothes. Once she had dressed into the plain black shirt and a gray and white skirt with black flats, she followed Dumbledore out into the decorated hallways that Hermione personally knew and memorized by heart.


	2. Resolve

**A/U: hey, I don't own harry potter or anything about it except my own plot line and my characters. This is the beta version of my stories. I'm getting these up and working on the 6th**** one. **

**Chapter Two: Resolve**

They walked at a brisk pace, but not too fast so as not to tire Hermione out, after all she is still recovering from the fight. Light flickered throughout the halls, making the castle seem more beautiful in its ancient magical way. It hardened her resolve to look at the whole castle, that's the way it should be in the future too, she thought. Dumbledore glanced at Hermione from the corner of his eye, he could tell she wasn't telling the whole truth, but he couldn't see any malice in her actions yet. If she was anything like Tom he'll have to stop her any way he could. He definitely wasn't one of the greatest wizards alive for nothing for old magic and strong magic ran within his blood. Albus decided to trust Hermione for now, but he wouldn't hesitate to push her aside if need be. Although, he hoped it wouldn't come to that.

They reached the two gargoyles and Dumbledore muttered a phrase of toys that caused them to move and reveal a stairway that led upwards. _Things never changed_, she thought as she stepped up upon the first step, her worry increasing with each second that passed. What was she to do? Everything's going to be different and yet she'll still see all her old memories, almost like they were in this very room right now. Headmaster Dippet was a squat man and her first impression on him didn't go very well. The man was most definitely plain and almost painfully clean, plus his voice made it obvious that he wasn't suited for the job.

"Headmaster Dippet, this is a transfer student. Its a sad thing to say that her family recently had been murdered and she is looking for a place in here to help finish her education. It would be best not to tell the students the reason why she is here." They looked from each other and Dippet examined Hermione before he came up with an answer. As he looked her over, she took another look at the man. Dippet really was quite a small stature of a man with a balding head on the top. A perpetual scowl seemed to be stuck to his face and didn't look like it would be leaving anytime soon.

"Very well, she'll be announced after all the new students come in and are sorted, but you probably won't want to wait in there with them so we'll just have you arrive when I call you in, is that all right?" Dippet didn't even let her say alright before he continued on with his speech. It was obvious that he liked the sound of his own voice above anything else.

"After you get some more healing done today and get your things, we'll have you tested on your magical strength. Now, if I may ask, how old are you…miss?"

"Miss Bellevue. I'm 17," in reality she was 18 but she wanted to be placed in 7th grade and didn't want everybody knowing she was older.

"What time tomorrow were you thinking for the exam, exactly?" Hermione questioned.

He paused for a moment with his hand rubbing his chin in thought.

"How about noon? Yes, that does sound good. On the third day, students will be arriving at 5 so you'll need to be in front of the Great hall by 5:30 p.m. I understand that you don't know where that is so I'm going to have Dinky, my house elf bring you to the Hall. She'll be at your room by 5:25 so I expect you to be ready to go. You'll be sorted into your house from there, and then you are out of my hands. Your scheduling will be determined by how much you need to know when we're done with your magical exam. If you end up proficient in most of them, then you'll have the choice to choose what you want. Yes, that sounds fair. Now off you go. I'll have Dinky take you to where you'll be staying for now. Dinky!"

The little house elf apparated into the room and curtsied to Hermione before taking her hand and walking off. She followed the house elf to the Head Boy and Girls quarters where she was apparently going to be staying by the looks of it. Hermione planned on examining the room for a bit and then go back to the Hospital Wing so that Mrs. Gamari could fix her arm up (not that she couldn't do it herself) and it probably wouldn't hurt that much. Over the years of fighting in the war, her cleverness had come in handy to all the rebels, a.k.a. the Order. Even Ron, who wasn't very talented in potions and healing, improved under the disapproving, patient stare of Hermione. Ron had told her several times of giving him those stares that she reminded him of his mother.

"Mr. Dippet wanted me to inform you that the password is Killian." It's ironic that the password means strife, she thought as she entered the gracefully painted room. There was certainly a lot of strife in her life, that's for sure. Harry…Ron… she sighed and let a tear escape from the madness behind her eyes. That's what had happened over the years they fought along side one another, she had gone through hell and come back mad. Same with her two best friends, maybe not so much Ron as Harry or her. Ron had seemed to drift apart through all those days hunting Voldemort and things just hadn't been the same after.

For now the Head's Rooms just a nice green color mixed with some warm browns. It made the rooms seem homey and comforting for once to Hermione. She flipped her now calm curls of golden brown over her shoulder and sighed as she slouched into a comfy seat near the soothing fire. Her head felt like it was continuously pounding and the soft crackle of the fire and comforting colors lulled Hermione to sleep. Her imagination seemed loose, and she began to drift before she let herself be swallowed by the call of darkness.

XXX

All she remembered was falling asleep and then waking up in some sort of room. Yet one thing was for sure, she wasn't alone anymore. Hermione's eyes honed in on the dark figure in the left corner of the large room.

"Who are you? Come into the light and introduce yourself or you won't survive." Suddenly she knew where a wand was and pulled out a beautiful green one that began whistling a tune as it trembled in her hand.

_This is not my old wand_, she thought, but she then pushed it aside and pointed it at whoever stood in the left corner of the room. Whatever, a wand was a wand, and this one certainly held a powerful aura that felt better than her original one.

"Calm down Meritaten. I'm not someone that will harm you, I have come to help." A woman slowly stepped out into the small amount of light creeping throughout the room. The woman was very beautiful, with her golden tan skin, bright brown eyes the color of the morning sun, and a wonderful body to go with it. Hermione personally did not care how she looked anymore. Not like when she was younger. She use to burn with jealousy at all the other girls that were beautiful, but she stuck through to the end. And although Hermione didn't care for her figure, this woman made her feel like she was twelve again.

"And why should I trust you? I don't even know where you've taken me," Hermione said to her. The woman just smiled kindly at her, which had Hermione furrowing her eyebrows at how kind the woman was trying to be when she had a wand pointed right at her face.

"Well child, why would I leave you with your wand if I had wanted to kill you? Wouldn't I have just tortured you to get what I want or something? But no, Meritaten, I'm here because I don't want you to be killed again. Do you know how you got to this realm my child? By me, yes me, my sun." Hermione relaxed, what the woman was saying sort of made sense. Then again, the woman wouldn't know so much if she hadn't been the one who sent her here, but that didn't mean she was going to let her guard down. Hermione just left her wand in the same position, but spoke with a calmer voice. Hermione just wondered why the woman was calling her Meritaten.

"For what purpose am I here? You wouldn't send me here for shits and giggles. So don't act all high and mighty when you're probably scheming on using me in some way and I don't take kindly to being used for others purposes. And why are you calling me by the name of Meritaten. My name is Hermione." Hermione glared at the woman, but the woman just continued to peacefully stand there with not a single nervous nerve in her body. "Plus this isn't my wand. I just sorta found it…," she didn't actually know how she ended up with the wand, but she knew that it most likely wasn't hers.

"Are you sure the wand isn't yours? You most definitely made a mistake, for it would have not come to you of you didn't call. The wand has been yours for the past thousand years or so from the birth of your soul till now. It hasn't come in your previous lives, for it has not been needed, but the time has come for you to use it once again. As you can see, it hums for you, as you do for it." The woman was actually baffling Hermione. How does she know this much about her? Hermione didn't even know asf much as the woman and it started to frighten her.

"Who are you exactly?"

She then smiled,

"Some call me Lady of Grace or Hereditary Princess, but that is no longer. That was only my old life, now I live here ever waiting for you, my daughter. I am here to guide you to the end, forever and ever." It instantly clicked in Hermione's brain, in the muggle histories, the Lady of Grace, also known as Hereditary Princess, was Nefertiti from Egypt.

"Nefertiti? But I'm not your daughter. That can't be possible." Hermione took another look at Nefertiti, her golden curls and bright, chocolate eyes, well… maybe it is possible. "It just can't be."

"Ah, yes as brilliant as ever. You never seem any different in any life you have, and you've had many my child. In each life you haven't succeeded in fulfilling your true destiny. That is why I asked Aten to guide you in this life, for it is the most difficult destiny you have taken on so far." Hermione let her wand point down. She just couldn't believe that this woman…her mother apparently… had killed her just to bring her back in time. Nefertiti smiled and embraced her daughter within a hug and Hermione slightly smiled and hugged her back,getting a feeling that it was right to be in someone's arms once again.

"Now, Meritaten, listen to me. There are some things you should know about Tom Marvolo Riddle that Dumbledore isn't meant to ever know, and wouldn't understand if he heard. Also, that wand is keyed to your sole energy, and was created by one of the most talented wand makers by old magic, it may help you in more ways than one. But use it wisely my daughter, for your spells will be amplified and some spells that aren't meant to kill might end up doing so. When you wake up dear, you won't remember any of this dream, but your soul will. It's the only help I can offer since I do not have a human body. Your soul will help you when you are lost, just believe in me my child, just believe. This is all that I have to tell you…"

XXX

Hermione woke with a start and glanced at the clock before sighing in relief. She had an hour before Dumbledore arrived for that trip to Diagon Alley. Gathering herself together, she went and looked for a shower. It was connected to both of the rooms, although they were magnificent, it sucked for whomever had to share the bathroom for one bathroom is only one even with all the grandeur. The huge bathroom is done in the colors gold and blue, the floor was tiled in squares of blue with the cracks painted in gold, which made it certainly pop out. She pulled back the golden shower curtain with gorgeous designs and turned on the hot water. Hermione scrubbed all the dirt and blood off, thankful that at last that she was officially clean and not covered in any sort of gore.

When she finally got out of the shower, she stared at herself in the mirror, seeing a tanner, more beautiful version of the little girl she used to be, if she ever really was little. It's hard because though she still looks young, Hermione Granger is anything but small in mind and body anymore. The years had done her well in bodily terms. Her breasts had filled in and her body turned more voluptuous after she'd grown to be 5'7. Hermione's once frizzy unmanageable hair is now delicate golden brown ringlets that frame her angelically, innocent looking face, but it's her eyes that really made her impressive and intimidating. She had those eyes that had seen all the horrors and deaths of her friends back home. Those golden, haunted eyes showed the pain, suffering, and her determination to make the future a better place for all the ones she loved. That is, after all, the reason she's here, to do what must be done however possible.

Hermione shook as she put on her new clothes again and brushed her hair. It was another ten minutes before Professor Dumbledore got there and then they headed to his room for the fireplace and flooed to Diagon Alley. Hermione came huffing and puffing to the other side of the fireplace and stood up after she brushed herself off. Compared to Hermione, Dumbledore isn't much more practiced than her, she guessed it had that effect on everyone then.

They came upon Mr. Ollivander and he turned towards them,

"Ah, Dumbledore nice to see you again. It's good to see your right on time too for I just got finished with my previous customer."

"Yes, and you Mr. Ollivander. This is a transfer student, Miss Bellevue, and she has broken her wand so we are in need of a new one as you have been informed." He nodded and then studied her for a moment and nodded again, as if he was trying to assure himself on which wand he had thought of. Hermione on the other hand couldn't remember if him nodding had been a good thing when she had gotten her first wand. Things seemed so much simpler in the future when she was younger, too bad things always had to end, especially if they're good. The only thing people ever say that lasts is true love, but who ever expects to get true love when everyone's destinies seem to end in death where ever she goes? Certainly not her, that's for sure. Death has taught her that many things go beyond her perception and things that happen are sometimes meant to be and can't be changed no matter how hard someone tries. Just like with Harry and how all thought he would save them, but what really did happen? Hermione herself was there but never got to witness either Harry's or Voldemort's demise.

"I see, I see. Yes, I'll be right back." Ollivander went to the very back room and sorted through boxes mumbling about god knows what. "Hm. Very well. How about these." He came back with three boxes, each of them a different color, and handed her a tannish looking one. She opened it and when she lifted it up and gave it a wave, only for it to burst into thin pieces of pine wood. Dumbledore and Ollivander looked from each other and back to her in confusion. Then Ollivander took out his own wand and cleaned up the mess with a simple spell, "I'll have to fix that later. You can't just use a spell to make a wand, unless it's of amazing capabilities that is, but those haven't been made since the early 1700s when magic lines were still strong."

"What happened sir? I've never seen a wand break before when it didn't want the owner," Hermione's confused voice echoed around the small shop. The shop was very cramped with dirty, dust worthy boxes filling every inch it possibly could. It made her feel claustrophobic and even when she moved, it was not to actually move around in. Although the store isn't in good condition the quality of the wands is well worth the cramped spacing.

"Neither do I, but try the next one I have a theory on what's happening." When Hermione hesitated he said, "don't be scared child it won't bite… maybe blow up but that's a different matter." Hermione huffed, she wasn't scared of anything but of one thing… the death of her friends. So she grabbed the blue box and set the top next to it. The wand was definitely in good condition and she couldn't tell what kind of tree it came from, but when she picked up this one it also burst like air had pushed it apart. She frowned and wiped a little blood off her cheek from the pieces that flew at her. Was this actually happening because she came from another realm? That wouldn't be good, then she wouldn't be able to use any magic here. It would be a horrible disadvantage since she's trying to kill one of the most powerful wizard for the last hundred years (other than Albus Dumbledore).

"Hm. I'll be right back my dear. I think I've solved our little mystery," the next thing she knew Ollivander had scurried off to find another wand leaving her and Dumbledore in silence. He looked at her and she returned her gaze toward him, what could he possibly be thinking? The silence dragged on and she wondered what to say to break the ice, which, sadly, it wasn't her specialty anymore. Hermione thanked whatever god there was out there when Ollivander came back.

The box in his hand looked positively ancient, and it sparked déjà vu. Her eyebrows crunched together as she tried to think of where she might have seen it before. As much as she tried to remember, nothing sparked her memory for she just couldn't place the thought within her mind. Mr. Ollivander grinned like the Cheshire cat and thrust the box into her hands.

"Somehow I knew you would be the one to entrust this with, but I just couldn't be sure. But that last wand showed me that it truly is yours. Only one with unimaginable powers could break a wand, those wands were too weak to hold your magic in them that's why they burst. A long time ago this came into my possession by a trader from Egypt. He gave it to me for free, but the thing he asked in return was to guard this with my life until I find the one with the power of the sun. I didn't know what it meant until today, you are the one with the sun in your eyes. So here, this is yours for free if the wand chooses you." Hermione opened the box to find a wand with a beautiful green handle that had golden mixed with the green. On the rest of the wand, a dark black with golden sun designs streaked through the wood, a kind of wood that she apparently knows as African ebony wood. She grasped the handle and a green aura surrounded her body and lifted her up. For some reason, it seemed that it was even more powerful than her last wand. More powerful than any wand she's even seen, other than Riddle's and Dumbledore's of course.

"The only thing the man told me about what made the wand is that it has African ebony wood and has the hair of a werewolf and vampire tied together in it. That combination of the two worst enemies of the magical world is a difficult one to form without killing the maker and whoever is around. Plus whoever made it had to have been a very powerful witch or wizard, because they need to be stronger than the wand itself to manifest the strength of the magic. The only other person that has a wand as strong is Dumbledore himself, and a boy I believe to be in his seventh year. Great things will come from you my girl, great things indeed."

Dumbledore hadn't said a word after that and she didn't do so either. Mr. Ollivander's words swirled around in her head for a long time as she walked to the next store. They went and got all that she'd need for the year; books, clothes, and he gave her some money and told her to look for her necessities that they didn't buy when shopping for clothes and a pet and asked her to apparate outside of the castle like she did before. Hermione nodded to him in response then meandered through the busy streets, it was the worst time of the year to shop because everyone was here looking for their school things at the last minute. The sun gleamed into her eyes and she looked up at it in curiosity, how was it possible that she was connected to the sun? Where had she heard that before?

Hermione shook her head to clear those thoughts, "think of the solution, not the problem," she told herself. No one ever got anywhere in life when all they did was mope about their problems, that's why Hermione tried to never do that and just think of what could get her out of that certain situation. A cold breeze went by and she shivered in delight, how she loved the winter. Memories of snowball fights with Harry and Ron, Butterbeer warming them by a fire in the middle of the night, and just sitting there talking about their lives. Suddenly the breeze didn't feel so cold and she sighed in dismay. "Look to the future Hermione," then she laughed because of the irony of it. When she stopped laughing she paused, it felt like someone was watching her. Her head swiveled around looking for the stalker and her warm golden eyes connected with dark midnight blue ones. The young man, around her age or a little younger, was in fact, the most gorgeous man she'd ever seen in her life. Glowing pitch black hair placed meticulously in the right place, everything about him looked professional. It almost seemed like he was devoid of all emotion though, what with that blank look on his face, but his head tilting to the side made her smirk at him.

The guy fixed his position, and she laughed, he obviously didn't like that he was caught staring at her with his head tilted like a little child that was just curious. Maybe that's why he just turned and walked away after breaking their eye contact. Hermione smiled, that certainly made her day, it's always a boost of confidence when a handsome guy looks her way, as unusual as it is. She just kept strolling through the streets, not really looking for what she was supposed to. After a while Hermione found a promising clothing store and bought all her necessities and her bathroom things. An hour later she walked through a alleyway that she knew would take her to the other street when she heard a whine. Hermione looked around and heard another whine before she found where the sound was coming from. Behind a dumpster there was a pure white baby Siberian husky wolf with ice blue eyes like the water around Antarctica.

The dog barked and whined and brushed against her legs as if it recognized its owner. "Aw, aren't you a cutie," she smiled down at him and picked him up. "I think you're my pet for this year, how does that sound?" The puppy barked as if saying yes, take me home. It practically melted her heart, yet, for some reason it eerily reminded her of Draco Malfoy, with it's white hair and ice blue eyes.

"Well, aren't you an odd little guy, cause there's someone I know that reminds you of me, but he isn't the nicest person. But I think it's only right that I name you after him since you look almost like him. So from now on you're officially known as Draco!" Even though this is weird, she thought she saw confusion in the puppies face, but then he barked happily and she just pushed it aside as her going crazy.

"I know you wouldn't believe this but, I think you're gorgeous like him. Although I'd never admit that to that pompous jerk, but now he's not here, same with everyone else… I'm all alone, I don't even know if there's anyone left alive in the other realm. Yeah, I know it's weird, but I come from 2007 and this is 1945. Where do you come from buddy? I mean, who would leave you in an alleyway to starve when you're probably the cutest puppy I've ever seen." Hermione smiled at Draco, it feels good to get things off her chest and she sat down and started crying her eyes out. The puppy looked at her like she was weird so she set him down, "you probably don't want to be with me, I get all emotional really easily now. Did you know I haven't cried since the time when the other Draco called me mud blood the first time… well actually no… also when my parents were murdered." She closed her eyes and let the tears fall down, her wet cheeks were going to be stained with her mascara that she put on today. Surprisingly the puppy just sat there staring at her, not doing anything. "Go on I know you probably don't like me, no one likes a mud blood." She laughed mirthlessly, completely empty of emotion as she wiped the tears from her face with disgust. "How pathetic am I? Well, let's go, I've wasted enough time with pitying myself for today." Hermione picked Draco up and cuddled him in her arms against her chest, the puppy snuggled in between her chest and she giggled as she pet it.

When she apparated to the outside of the castle she stared at it, seeing it this way made her want to cry but she'd already dried out her tear ducts today. Hogwarts never seemed to get any less breathtaking, every time she came here her mind was blown with the precise beauty of it. The lake reflected the gorgeous structure of the castle and it seemed even more magical that way. Hermione walked inside and went to Dumbledore's office for she wanted to talk to him about tomorrow. He asked her to come in and when she answered he asked her if she got everything she needed. The dog barked since she stopped petting him and Dumbledore commented that dogs weren't allowed as a pet. She frowned, "but please Professor Dumbledore, I found him and just couldn't leave him to starve, plus I saved your money that way. Just make and exception this time, for me." Hermione pouted her best puppy dog face, and so did the dog.

"Well alright, but if he gets into any trouble he's out of here Hermione. But what is it that you need?" His eyes twinkled as he smiled warmly at her, and she grinned back.

"I wanted to ask you if I'm to come here for the testing or to Headmaster Dippet's office. Also I came to return your extra money," setting the bag of money on the table she looked down at Draco. He's just so cute, she thought.

"Come here tomorrow, it will be at noon if you didn't catch that earlier. Hermione, you can keep the extra money in case of emergencies or for Hogsmeade. I will count as your guardian, so I believe it will work out. Plus I believe you will be needing to get that wolf of yours some food." Dumbledore looked at the puppy in curiosity, he knew Siberian husky wolves were pretty tame but he didn't want anyone to get bit because of his decision to have him here.

"Oh thank you Dumbledore er- Professor Dumbledore. Tomorrow, then," Hermione waved to him and walked towards the Head's dormitory with Draco trailing behind. When she got inside, she slumped into the comfy looking bed, not even bothering to change, and fell asleep without even letting a sliver of that thought cross her mind. The day was exhausting for her, and crying tended to tire her out. Draco looked up at her sleeping peacefully then jumped up to join her on the bed, they slept contentedly next to each other, both tired from the long day.


	3. Uh, sorry?

**Chapter Three: New Girl**

Sunlight streamed through the black curtains, somehow piercing through them even if they were black. Hermione opened her tired eyes and glared the most hateful glare at the curtains and groaned. Draco let out a little yip as he yawn and began to lick her hand, almost as if urging her to get up and stop procrastinating.

"I know, I know. I'm getting up sheesh. What does a girl have to do to get a few hours of beauty sleep these days?" She harrumphed while the dog barked and she could almost imagine Draco himself saying something along the lines of 'you'd need a lot of those to make yourself look beautiful.'

Laughing the dog turned it's head in confusion. "Oh nothing, I'm just thinking of what Draco would say to that, what a waste of my time I know. It's just weird, even though he's my enemy I'd just wish for some familiar face, and I swear if I ever hear him call me mudblood again when I get back I'm gonna kiss him until I can't breath anymore," she laughed again at the prospect and went to take a shower.

Hermione winced while she groaned as she got out of the shower. Her arm's were still hurting, but were definitely not aching as bad as yesterday. The potions Madam Gamari had her drink didn't come into affect for another hour, so she grabbed a towel to dry off and went to get her clothes. Hermione reached her closet and dropped her towel into the dirty pile of clothes on the right side of the walk in closet and put on boxer shorts and a bra that she'd made out of the night gowns that the girls wore these days. She just couldn't get comfortable wearing a huge gown to bed, it made her sweat when she fell asleep with all of those dreams that came to haunt her.

After dressing, Hermione mumbled a spell that made it possible with just a flick of her wrist, her wand would appear in her hand. It definitely comes in handy in times of great need, which you never know when you're going to need something like that. Hermione then went to the kitchen to eat and found herself eating a huge breakfast, something that she hasn't done in a long time. The plate before her held lots of eggs, mostly scrambled and cinnamon buttered toast. She was practically starving anyways for almost dying tends to do that to a person. Plus, those elves sure know how to cook a great meal, and even after the meal they kept going to her and asking if she wanted more. They were really one persistent group, especially one called Gatise.

Around noon, she arrived back at the Head Dorm to find Dinky waiting for her already. Another thing about those elves is they always randomly pop up, it's kind of eerie.

"Oh, I didn't know you're escorting me Dinky." Hermione said with a smile. She had once tried to free the elves from their slavery in the future with a group that was called S.P.E.W., but learned that most elves aren't like Dobby. Dinky's a petite elf with bright blue eyes and a shy smile.

"Dinky does what master says and he says to bring you to Professor Dumbledore's office. Let's go Missus." Nodding, she followed her all the way to his office and knocked on the sturdy doors.

"Come in Miss Bellevue," answered a voice that came from the other side of the door. Hermione then opened the door with a smile directed at Dumbledore and Headmaster Dippet. They're both standing in the middle of the room behind the desk in the far back of the room, giving them space for the testing. Both are smiling at her with an air of confidence.

"Welcome Hermione. I believe I'd forgotten about yesterday's appointment and I am extremely sorry for I had business to attend to. Is it alright for tomorrow to be our first meeting?" His eyes twinkled at her and her heart lifted, it's always nice to see an old face even if he doesn't know who she is.

"Yes, that's perfectly alright. I understand, and tomorrow will be just fine. After dinner then?" She smiled graciously at him for she also had forgotten about the meeting.

"Ah yes. After dinner then, it's settled. Are you ready for your testing then?"

"Of course, I'm as ready as I'll ever be." he nodded and began to ask her questions in rapid succession. The questions got harder and more complex as he went on, but there was few to none that she missed. At the end of the questioning Professor Dumbledore drank some water and brandished his wand while she noticed that it's already two in the afternoon. Dumbledore was a hard questioner and a determined teacher, so he seemed to be a formidable opponent with a wand pointed at her face. She remembered him teaching her when she was younger and how they would talk and he would teach her wonderful things about magic.

"Splendid! Almost done now, the last test is a duel. I hope that you did bring your wand, yes?" Hermione nodded and flicked her own wand out with her wrist. They moved everything out of the way earlier so they stood on each side of the room facing one another. Dumbledore smiled at her and then they were off. _Stupefy_, Hermione thought, she would start simple and try and keep him unaware that she was good at dueling. Then she would look for a chance to paralyze him or something of that nature.

"_Incarcerous._" Dumbledore shouted, she dodged the ropes that shot at her and returned fire, _Incendio._

"_Protego_," he called out, protecting himself from Hermione's spell. The fire curved around a circular area, leaving Dumbledore untouched by her spell. They both kept shooting and blocking, like a dance, but dangerous if caught. Dumbledore didn't say the spell out loud this time, as if to test her too, but she knew it wasn't anything inexplicably hard, so she thought, _Protego_.

While Professor Dumbledore was busy reflecting her other spell she had cast, she sent another one his way, _Bombarda._

Normally, this spell would have only cause a small explosion that would have maybe pushed someone back or blew off some skin, but it was a good thing Dumbledore had cast a stronger Protego, because when the spell ripped around Dumbledore, it blew up the ground around him where the shield wasn't. Hermione had figured that her wand was more powerful than plenty of people's, but she didn't know to what extent. Yet, by the mere look of things, it seemed to be so in tune with her body, that it created something more powerful than what she expected.

The wand fit perfectly in her hand and the thought of that made her calmer towards the fight. While the debris from the last spell flew all around, Hermione took this as her chance, so she cast an illusion spell to make them think she was standing by the window.

But the real trick to this, was that she would have an invisible spell upon the double standing by the window, so when Dumbledore looked for a charm, he would find one all right, but only the one she wanted him to find.

Dumbledore raised his wand, just about to shout a spell, when Hermione popped out of nowhere and cried, "_Expelliarmus_."

The wand was about to leave his grip, but he muttered something and it stopped trying to get away from him. Hermione frowned for she had never heard of that kind of spell. Hermione was so shocked at that fact, that she didn't block in time when Dumbledore cast the same spell at her.

Professor Dumbledore had his wand pointed at her and was smiling, "that was brilliant Hermione. If I didn't know that charm I wouldn't have won. You've shown incredible potential, even Headmaster Dippet thinks so," his eyes twinkled as he pointed towards the gaping mouth of Dippet. She smirked when he shut his mouth and his attention actually focused.

Dippet cleared his throat and gave her a fake smile that showed his crooked teeth, the first one she'd gotten from him since she met him. If Dippet had known beforehand what kind of witch she is he wouldn't have treated her as unimportant, and even Hermione knew it.

"Headmaster Dippet, don't you think she's worthy of the position of Head Girl? I believe she's bested Eileen Prince's grades. It's a good thing we couldn't send those letters out yet or else Eileen would be devastated."

Dippet smiled again, that grim smile, and she shuddered. "Of course, of course! That is if you want to take the position." Dumbledore and he looked towards her and she smiled graciously, this had been her dream since her first year at Hogwarts.

"That seems like a wonderful idea. I would love to be Head Girl then. Have you decided what to do with my classes seeing as I have to get my schedule tomorrow." Her intense golden eyes made Dippet freeze, they were insanely deep. It looked like gazing into the sun on a hot day, it made one squint and look away because it made you feel inferior.

Dippet stood there for another minute before it looked like he decided something.

"Well, since you're more than proficient in all your studies I will leave it to you to decide what you should take this year. Although you'll have all the normal required classes that others have. You can go to all the advanced classes if you want. I'll introduce you tomorrow then, at 5:30, Dinky will be there at 5:25 p.m. Good day, oh and I'll present you with you Head Girl badge tomorrow also," Dippet looked at her and so did Dumbledore, she nodded and left the room smiling. Headmaster Dippet's smile scarred her more than his scowl did. Dumbledore had almost been bested by her, a mere student…well not exactly a meager student. It certainly boosted her deflated ego.

For the rest of the day, she searched through the Restricted Section, because there was no one here and they didn't lock it or charm it, so all was free to be read. She even found some books that weren't there in the future and decided to keep them for light reading. All the information she found on time traveling wasn't exactly concrete, so it didn't do any good. Hermione sighed and did an _Accio _for the book with the most powerful spells/charms/curses on time traveling and she didn't care which one she got, she was tired and just wanted to stop searching.

Yeah, most people thought Hermione liked researching, well she does, just not when she's frustrated and cranky from sleep deprivation, plus time traveling isn't her thing.

The book that landed on the desk definitely wasn't one that she'd seen in the Restricted Section in all of her years at the school, and she realized she hadn't limited the spell to the room, so it could have come from anywhere in the castle, but still, it was plenty of years back so she didn't know the Restricted Section that well. Most of all the school's doors weren't locked because none of the students were here and everyone else was a teacher of herself.

"Oh well," she laughed. No harm in using it now that she has it.

"Arff!" Hermione heard and smiled at the wolf cub at her feet, Draco came to see her. "Hello there little guy. How'd you get in here?" he barked again in response and looked at the door she must have left open, then pawed at the book on the table.

"What's this about, you ask? It's time traveling since I want to get back." Draco whined and rubbed against her arms. She giggled, which made her feel as if she was four again, "I wont leave you if that's what you want." The dog grinned at her, causing a tingle of shock to crawl up her spine since she didn't know that wolves could do that. Hermione picked up the book and set it in her satchel to read for later in case anyone would recognize it like the other books.

In one hand, she had her bag and in the other, Draco. Now that she thought about it, that sounded quite odd, Draco in her arms, Hermione chuckled lightly. He wiggled as she walked down the deserted hallways of Hogwarts. She shivered and noticed that for some odd reason, it's creepier when there's no one else here. When the students are bustling around the castle, it's filled with a certain life, an aura that makes it seem alive. Now that no one's here to fill the gap, it's empty and desolate compared to the green hills outside. September this year was mostly a little cooler than the last time she had truly been here and she wrapped her jacket tighter around herself.

They reached the room and she set Draco and her bag down next to the couch in her Head room. Hermione hadn't bothered to decorate, one because she didn't have any valuables, and two because she just found out that she was actually going to stay in the room. That got her thinking, she needed to go to Hogsmeade to give the room some life.

Her old dorm room then flashed into her mind and she frowned while sagging down upon the bed. Hopefully over time she'd be able to stop thinking about that, since she'd have to stay here unless she found a way back… which was highly doubtable, ugh, she thought, stupid logical mind.

The clock struck twelve o'clock a.m. so she went to go change while Draco sat there and watched her, panting. Hermione paused for a second and frowned at Draco, this was awkward so she turned her back to him and dressed in her night clothes. Then when she finished she picked up Draco and went to bed.

XXX

Draco nipped her ear and she waved him away grumpily. He bit harder and was almost pushed off when she shot up yelling, "ow!" Hermione rubbed her red ear and laughed when Draco did that odd sort of grin at her innocently. "Yeah, I have to get up." She looked at the clock and noticed she still had a good four hours.

Her arms ached and she wasn't entirely surprised to find them scratched up with blood crusting around the deep wounds. So, with a wave she thought, _Episkey_, and the wounds were gone but the blood is still there so she did a cleaning spell. These nightmares were slowly driving Hermione crazy.

Hermione took a shower and magically dried her hair so it didn't take that frizzy style, and then put it up in a ponytail. After her hair was done, she put on a little mascara and chap stick. That was all she really cared to put on these days. There were more important things than how she looked that day. God, that made her think of how Lavender and Pavarti used to get up early every morning to just do their hair and gossip about the latest trend or the hottest dude in Hogwarts. Her memories made her cringe, and she place her hand upon the wall of the bathroom, leaning against it. She missed everything.

Hermione was reading a book called The Name Of The Wind, one that happened to be her favorite book, just to pass some of the time. Her stomach growled for she barely ate anything since she knew that there was going to be a feast tonight. What she had eaten had only filled her up a bit, just to keep her stomach sort of in control, but it made more noise a couple of times before it settled down.

Hermione sighed, glad that it was a nice thing that the Head Room had a seat by the window to let the light in. It was the perfect place to sit down and crack open a book.

The time passed by and before she knew it, Dinky was at her door at five twenty-five p.m. right on time. Dinky gave her a shy smile and then led her to the Great Hall's entrance. Hermione could hear names being screamed across the hall then the clapping as they went to their destined houses. Hermione was calm since she already knew which house she'd get, Gryffindor, obviously. There was only one other house that she would possibly get now that she's not with Harry or Ron and that's Ravenclaw.

This process continued for a couple minutes and after Matrim Zerxim was sorted into Ravenclaw, Headmaster Dippet spoke out to everyone,

"Hello all, because of a tragedy there is a transfer student that is coming to Hogwarts. I plead you to not disturb her and not to ask about her past, this is a new beginning for her." She snorted, I mean, how ironic is that? He didn't even know how right he is. "Now, give a warm welcome to our transfer… Hermione Bellevue."

Hermione took a deep, calming breath and pushed open the doors to reveal many curious faces. Deciding to ignore them she stepped into the hall gracefully, her feet having made no noise from all of her stealth training with Harry and Ron. Some gave wolf whistles and she blushed a deep scarlet, this certainly wasn't home.

At Hogwarts in the future, people would be glaring at her from the Slytherin table for her dirty blood and the others would be looking at her respectfully. Now all these people were looking at her like they didn't know what to expect and it made her feel queasy. New people just wasn't her strong point, she even remembered the first time she met the Trio.

Soon they'd all know she was a mud blood and some will dislike her, but if all goes well she won't have to tell anyone. The old hat stared back at her, and when she placed it on her head, he struggled to as where she should go. He shouted in a jumble, "RavenclawSlytherin." The hall went silent again then into an uproar. Never had that happened where a student is so much of both that they had two houses called.

Hermione looked just as surprised as everyone else was. Out of all the houses the two that she was most like now was Slytherin and Ravenclaw? She didn't even know that she had anything in common with those snakes, but now that she's different… she can almost understand why.

Dippet turned to her in shock but Dumbledore delicately took over and suggested, "since the hat can't decide where to put you I believe it will be up to you Miss Bellevue." Hermione looked at him, but she knew she had to choose Slytherin to be closer to Voldemort. Then she could work from the inside out. Her insides turned, what should she choose?

"Slytherin," the name came out of Hermione's mouth surprisingly easy. Somehow she expected to be punished or something from betraying Gryffindor, after all she was know as the Gryffindor Princess. Dumbledore nodded at her and her robes changed to green and silver with a snake symbol at the corner. Slytherin's cheered and she found a seat at the end of the table. Thankfully not too many people were currently sitting there. They all gazed at her with the utmost curiosity. Never before had there been a transfer student in Hogwarts.

Hermione tried to ignore them as the feast went on, but they were too intense to just brush off one's shoulder, especially when they're staring. Her eyes flitted here and there looking for the culprit. Suddenly her head turned on its own accord and she found herself staring into midnight blue eyes that seemed familiar.

Then it clicked, she's seen him before, he was the boy in Diagon Alley that made her laugh. A smirk tugged at the corner of her mouth from contentedness. For some reason she got pleasure and accomplishment out of making him feel foolish.

"Everyone, there's an announcement for the new Heads this year. We were unable to send out the forms due to some difficulties, but everything's worked out now," Dippet added when people started talking loudly. "Now, the head boy for this year is…. Tom Riddle!" The clapping started and Dippet waved him forward.

Hermione choked on her drink, and her jaw dropped, _that_ was Tom Riddle? The whole reason she is here is standing in front of her, somehow she'd thought him to be ugly, and horrid like his personality. The fact that he looked like a gods' offspring only worsened her impression of him, she frowned when he glanced at her when he passed to take his seat.

Pushing aside that thought she tried to listen. "I know that she's new but Hermione Bellevue is our Head Girl for this year. We have tested her beforehand and found her to pass everything with flying colors. Please give an applause for her." Hermione frowned again and went to grab her badge, she wished he would have just discreetly handed them out, not so the whole school could see. Being new and given a position of power, especially in front of people to rub it in, didn't exactly endear people to her.

"Since the new Heads don't know your passwords it's up to the head of your house to show you where to go afterwards. Enjoy the feast." After his droning voice stopped she felt the pressure of peoples' eyes staring even stronger than before.

They seemed unabashed to stare at her openly, the rumors were already starting, Hermione groaned with displeasure. She almost felt like Harry Potter did when he first came to Hogwarts oh so long ago. She shook them off and went back to eating her fiesta lime chicken that they had obviously stolen from Applebee's. It was ironic, Slytherin was eating a muggle's food.

Hermione masticated slowly to savor the food, it'd been a while since she'd had good Hogwarts food. Eventually she finished and spied on a couple of people she went to school with earlier.

A few red-heads sat at the Gryffindor table, which indicated that they could only be the Weasleys. The Weasleys of this current time period are two girls (twins ironically) in Hermione's grade and a younger boy that had to be in second year. The girls' have beautiful, long flaming hair with bright green eyes, while the boy had the same but with short red hair. Although the boy's eyes seemed a little bit blue too, but it's hard to tell from the distance.

Farther down the table she saw a flash of blond hair that brought back memories. Hermione cringed, then everything went silent as she heard a bark reverberating around the Great Hall. Her face paled and she hoped it wasn't what she thought it was. Hope being crushed once another bark rang out and a little ball of white fur came racing down the entire length of the table.

Of course she had to have picked the side of the table that was furthest away from the Great Hall's big wooden doors and she cursed her luck. People's dinners was scattered all over them and she sighed again, Draco stopped in front of her barking and grinning happily like the world didn't just freeze. The entire hall went silent.

Hermione looked towards everyone down the table who was staring at her, yet again, "uh, sorry?" Her voice, which seemed very weak for some reason, was carried across the hall. She then just flicked her wrist and her wand came into her hand. Feeling much more comfortable now that her wand was there, she did a series of wrist movements and thought _Scourgify _for their clothes and then another to make the food all over them disappear.

The whole table gasped at the fact that the food went away and their clothes were cleaned almost instantly. Then she simply grabbed Draco, mumbled another bout of apologies and rushed out the Great Hall's door, completely forgetting she needed her schedule for tomorrow's classes.


	4. New Beginnings

_**A/U: By the way all of the characters for Death Eaters in this age, I am aware that most of them weren't there then or even their grandfathers. Still, since I don't want to make a lot of random characters I'm using their last names. **_

_**IMPORTANT: Hermione is not MarySue! She has a lot of problems mentally, not physically. So don't think that I made her beautiful in this story means that she's perfect! Tom Riddle is what is her fault, he makes her fall in love with him, and vice versa. **_

_**The reason she's good at mostly everything (other than she's Hermione) is that back then they didn't have all the spells that she did when she was in school so she's much more advanced than mostly everyone, plus her recently found wand which will boost her actual power level if you hadn't noticed. And Dumbledore back then is not as crafty as in the future, you have to remember that.**_

**Chapter Four: New Beginnings **

Hermione breathed in deeply before sighing. She was relieved she had actually gotten out of there in one piece. It was surprising that the Slytherins didn't just get up and hex her right on the spot.

"Oh, shoot!" Hermione cursed as she stomped her foot on the ground like a little girl having a tantrum, she'd forgotten her schedule. The only way to get it would be to go back in there after her dramatic exit, how silly would she look?

Deciding that she'd get it from Dumbledore after breakfast tomorrow, she went on her way and back to her Dorm. It was a good thing she knew where it was or else she'd have to wait for _him_ to get back and open the door to the Head's Room. Hermione practically shuddered just thinking about him, she couldn't believe that she'd actually thought him handsome. Just wait fifty years or so and he'd look like the snake he had for a pet, she snorted with laughter. Hermione walked the halls a little aimlessly at first to get things off her mind, but faces kept appearing solemnly in the forefront of her head.

Harry's face was among the first to come along. It was weird since it wasn't exactly hallucinating it was more like another layer of her life lay upon her new one. As she passed a window looking out to the yards she froze. Flying around the fields was Harry Potter himself, glorious in his red and gold Gryffindor colors, a smile on his face lighting up everything around him.

She paled and her hands gripped the window sill as she tried to look away but found she couldn't. Her memories were too strong and then she saw Ron on a broom next to him talking as they flew. Gasping she sank to the floor, Hermione didn't know when she started crying, but now it came full force.

"Harry… Ron! I miss you two so much! Is there truly a god out there? If so, where did he go when he skipped over us? There is no mercy in this world! What have I done to deserve this?" She slammed her fist on the ground and was shocked at the feeling of a release of power. Hermione withdrew her fist from the ground and found a dent in the solid floor where she had hit it. That certainly hadn't happened before.

When she was quiet, she finally heard it, a soft clicking of heels, it wasn't coming towards her though, but away. Someone had obviously been watching her, most likely the whole time. So much for her great stealth skills, she got so absorbed she forgot the main rule; never get distracted and let your guard down. That's exactly what she did; now she didn't even know who had tailed her. Draco was standing glumly off to the side, like he knew what was happening. Hermione stood and wiped her useless tears on the back of her hand.

With another sigh, which felt like the fiftieth one she'd done so far, she picked up Draco and went on her way. Now it was just her lonely flats clicking along and she felt her heart sink. No! She wouldn't go back to moping, where would that get her? Harry and Ron certainly wouldn't be going anywhere, in fact, they hadn't even been born!

Slowly she got to her destination, said the password and the door slammed behind her. It echoed loudly and she cringed, she probably woke him up if he was here. The clock cuckooed and Hermione finally noticed what time it was. Already the clock was striking 9 o'clock! How long had she been absorbed in her memories and thoughts?

Draco raced into the room on the left she'd picked and jumped on her bed in the corner of the room. There was a main room for the Heads' to obviously do whatever they wanted. Then it branched off, one door to the left, the other right. Both had a door inside that connected them to their shared bathroom. This is the only thing she doesn't like about it, she'd have to share a room with Tom Riddle.

Hermione walked in her room and glanced at Draco fast asleep on the bed; she smiled and petted him for a bit. Then she pulled out a book and read herself to sleep.

XXX

In the morning around 7:30 she woke to Draco nudging her and her alarm going off. Groaning she slid off the bed and onto the floor while placing the book on the nightstand. Hermione did her morning routine which consisted of a shower and then putting chap stick on, mascara, brushed her hair and teeth then dressed in her uniform. She bounded down the hallways with her bag strapped over her shoulder and a slight smile on her face. She was going to make sure not to have today like yesterday.

Hermione reminded herself to get her schedule and first thing she did was walk up to Dumbledore in the Great Hall. "Hello, Professor Dumbledore. Sorry about yesterday, but I kinda forgot my schedule," her hand was scratching her head and she looked at him bashfully through her long lashes. He chuckled at her actions.

"Yes yes. I believe you did Miss Bellevue. In fact it's right here. I was going to have Slughorn your house head hand it to you but it seems you've gotten to me first." Dumbledore held out the form to her and she gripped it in her hands before saying thank you and goodbye.

A lot of eyes were still on her and she tried to ignore the feeling of them boring holes in her. If only she could have meals in her room again, like before. Hermione bit into some toast and glanced at her schedule. Obviously, she was placed in all advanced classes. On Monday through Wednesday she had Potions first, then Defense Against the Dark Arts, Arithmancy, and… what? How to Be a Wife? Hermione snorted, well that's just great, they were trying to make the women of this century into nothing more than a bunch of pansies! No wonder why they were so unprepared for this war, they acted like it could never happen!

Well, she'd show them. After that horrid class at fifth period the students all had lunch and afterwards she had Transfiguration, Charms, History of Magic, Ancient Runes, and then a free period. It was a ten period day schedule and she didn't mind it, she loved learning things after all. That is why she chose almost all the things someone could have possibly done their seventh year.

She glanced at the rest. Thursday and Friday's schedule consisted of a double period of Potions, then double Defense Against the Dark Arts, lunch, then Arithmancy, double Transfiguration, Charms, then another free period. At the bottom of the page it said in bold letters '**Astronomy class on Tuesdays and Fridays at Midnight in the Tower.**' She sighed with thankfulness; at least she didn't have that dreaded class on Thursdays and Fridays.

Her classes started at 8 and ended at 3 in the afternoon. She glanced at her muggle watch and noticed it was already 7:54 am. Oops, time to go; she bustled off but not before grabbing another blueberry muffin. The muffin was so good she finished it in a few minutes, blueberry was her favorite. While she was enjoying her muffin Hermione didn't notice where she was walking and ran straight into someone. They collided with an exhalation of breath and plumped on the ground with a huff.

"Oh, I'm so so sorry! I wasn't watching-," the guy held up a hand to stop her from another apology. It wasn't one of her fellow Slytherins, thankfully, because they would have just jinxed her or something. Actually it was a seventh year Ravenclaw boy, he was tan with dark brown wavy hair and charcoal black eyes. Something glinted in the sun and she noticed that pinned on his robes was a Prefect badge.

"It's perfectly alright Miss Bellevue. I wasn't watching either, so how about we just forget that little accident." He smiled down at her, seeing as he was only a little shorter than Tom Riddle himself. Hermione couldn't help but smile back and accept his hand. There she goes again with Tom Riddle this, Tom Riddle that. Gheesh.

"Yes, thank you." Grinning at her, he picked up his own bag and then handed her own bag back to her seeing that she had dropped it in the bump-in.

"You certainly are not like any Slytherin I've known. Most would hex me before I had another thought, the others well… they wouldn't have even bothered to say sorry. I must ask, where are you headed?" The boy held her arm gently, like a gentleman and walked down the hall with her.

"Well, mister no-name I am currently headed to Potions in the Dungeons," Hermione smirked at him.

"Ah, yes where were my manners? Hello, I am Perrin Zerxim, a Ravenclaw and Prefect." He stopped purposely and kissed her hand while smirking. The light from the window behind him played on his hair and she blushed, cherry red. It was shocking to go from being totally ignored by the male population to… well… _this._

"And I believe that I am in the same class, so I will escort you there. I don't want you to get lost your first day, seeing as I've already made you late." Indeed he had, she checked her watch and it was already 8:01 am.

Hermione laughed, "It's certainly alright. Potions were never my favorite, and I don't like the looks of Slughorn." Major understatement there, she absolutely loathed that man. Of course she wasn't supposed to know him yet so she couldn't say that.

"I'd have to say I agree with you on that one. I do dreadful in Potions and barely passed last year. If you're how I think you are I believe you'll dislike Professor Slughorn even more than I do." Perrin guided her down the stairs, but that wasn't what she was looking at. His eyes held her in a trance; they were like pits that swirled with such deep felt emotion so much unlike the devoid Riddle. Why did her thoughts seem to always turn to him?

"Oh and how is it you think of me?" Hermione couldn't help but smile, she was getting along rather swimmingly with him. In time, perhaps they would be good friends. This time it was his turn to blush, although it wasn't as bad, it was just a light smidgen of pink tinting his tan cheeks.

"From what I've seen you seem intelligent, helpful, and even dare I say it, _caring_. You should have chosen Ravenclaw; I don't know how such an innocent girl such as yourself wanted Slytherin." This time Hermione laughed a lot louder, if anything she definitely wasn't _innocent_.

"You're mostly right. But if I was innocent then I wouldn't be in Slytherin remember?" She chuckled slightly, a smirk gracing her face.

"Touché." It was another minute or so before they got there and he asked her if she wanted to sit with him. Hermione accepted, smiling up at him.

When they got there it was already 8:03 am, Perrin frowned and she laughed at him which made him smile at her as they entered. Everyone looked up at them as they entered. Unfortunately there weren't any two seats open next to each other and Perrin smiled sadly at her. "Sorry, I'll see you after class?" Hermione offered and he smiled, nodded, and then went to his seat by his friends. The only other seat open was in the front and she went to claim it, and she noticed sullenly that Riddle himself was only a few seats away from her.

Slughorn came up to her and practically towered over her. "Now why were you two so late? Zerxim I expected you to put up an example for Miss Bellevue's first day here." His voice boomed across the room and she rolled her eyes then put on her 'face'.

"Sir, it was my entire fault. I'd lost my favorite necklace that my old friends gave me and he graciously offered to help me even though I was already late. Thanks to his help I didn't get lost and found my necklace. If there's anyone you should punish it should be me." She looked up into his eyes then demurely let her gaze slide to the floor where she kept them.

Professor Slughorn was taken back, he hadn't expected that. "Ah," he chuckled, "I see, very well then. Don't be late next time. And 5 points to Ravenclaw for helping another in need. Now as I was saying…" the class droned on boringly and Hermione couldn't help but drift. Her hand was unconsciously taking notes for her, while her brain was somewhere else.

This was a natural thing for her as she'd done it for years now. That's how she'd gotten through her History of Magic class way back when. Harry and Ron always thought she paid attention but in all reality she was letting herself multitask, and then look over the notes later. The only classes she ever really paid attention in were Charms, Transfiguration (her personal favorite), DADA (another favorite), Arithmancy, and Astronomy.

The bell rang and she blessed the god(s) for their helpfulness. It wasn't that she hated Potions, just Slughorn. He seemed very into himself and always was inviting someone to that stupid Slug Club. Then if they did something bad he would always say 'I'm not going to invite you now!' like anyone really cared?

Hermione practically ran out of that class, "hey wait up Bellevue!" She stopped to see Zerxim and another boy walking towards her and smiling. "That was bloody brilliant. You really didn't have to do that though. I actually like being a thorn in Slughorn's side," he chuckled and took her arm again. "By the way this is my best mate Alphonse Risin, or for short Al." Alphonse had short black hair and gleaming brown eyes that were as shiny as a penny.

"It's nice to meet you ma'am. Perrin here's been talkin' bout you all class, and I say I have to agree with him." Al, like Perrin, bent to kiss her hand. Hermione didn't blush as bad but she still couldn't help it, she wasn't used to this kind of charm. Most guys her age thought her a bore and didn't like her brown untamable hair and know-it-all attitude.

With her hand still in his grip she turned to Perrin and raised an eyebrow before replying, "Is that so? It's nice to meet you Al, I'm sure you've heard of me before. My name is Hermione Bellevue."

"It's my pleasure. Where are you headed to?" Al had taken a place beside her as they were walking.

Hermione glanced at her schedule again, "I'm off to Defense Against the Dark Arts. And you guys?" She had to look back and forth between them because she was in the middle.

"Splendid, we were just going there ourselves." Perrin smiled down at her, and she at him. They all chatted as they walked down the hallways. It was still early morning and she was rather tired. Perrin and Al kept her attention as they kept asking her questions which she deftly deflected into questions about them.

"So what are your guys' favorite classes?" Hermione asked them while walking slowly down one of the main halls. They were almost there, and she was getting anxious as she could feel someone's eyes on her.

"If you count Quidditch as a class, that's my favorite. I'm the captain you see," Perrin smiled. "I also enjoy Defense Against the Dark Arts, History of Magic and Herbology." The last one surprised Hermione a bit, not many boys in her time liked Herbology much, except for Neville Longbottom.

Al snorted, "Yeah, Perrin over here is a geek when it comes to Herbology. Honestly, he even reads books on them." Perrin blushed slightly but ignored him. "Personally, Potions is my favorite." He sighed dejectedly, "If only old Slughorn was replaced. Anyways, I like Transfiguration and History of Magic too. How about you Hermione?" She didn't even really have to think about it.

"My personal favorite has to be Transfiguration, then DADA, Astronomy, Charms, and also Ancient Runes. Actually I like everything except Divination, it's just ridiculous. Well, and I don't care too much for Potions or History of Magic, perhaps that has to do with my old teacher." Hermione frowned as all the memories of her old Hogwarts came back.

"You alright?" Perrin asked in a concerned tone as he noticed her frowning.

Hermione sighed and put on a lazy smile, "Yeah, just a bit hungry that's all."

"Okay, here we are then. Welcome to Defense Against the Dark Arts Hermione." Perrin took her hand and led her to a seat in the middle row and more to the front of the room. "Sit by me." Hermione smiled a bit then sat to the right of him, Al sat on the other side by the edge of the four seat table. Her fingers drummed against the wood table as she waited for the room to fill.

The person she presumed to be the teacher walked in, "Hello all, I'm Professor Grynz (Grins), welcome to Defense Against the Dark Arts." All the girls in the class practically melted when he smiled, he was a young, new teacher at the school who had blond hair to his ears and sparkling green eyes.

Hermione sighed and rubbed her eyes in dismay, of course she'd have to get one of _these _Professors for DADA. The type that thought they were the best and knew everything, someone like she used to be. The only difference is that she was not beautiful then and so everyone didn't fall at her feet like so.

Professor Grynz paced around the room looking at each individual, "This year we will be learning about-," he was cut off when the door opened to reveal Tom Riddle standing there.

"I'm sorry to interrupt Professor, I had some head duties to attend to I hope you'll forgive my disturbance." There he stood, straight backed with his hair placed meticulously in place a few strands covering his eyes, now unlike before his eyes were a light frozen blue color. Hermione thought that odd because she could have sworn they were midnight blue earlier. Riddle's voice was a deep melodious sound, with a soothing affect and enhanced by a slight British accent.

Professor Grynz smiled at Riddle, "that's fine. Find a seat Riddle. Now where was I? Ah, yes, this year we'll be learning about various types of creatures and how to defeat them, the Unforgivables, and we will also be participating in dueling for the first time." Cheering went through the class as Grynz tried to calm everyone down. "As I was saying, today will be your first official duel to test you guys of your power and who you will be dueling with after this for the rest of the year. They will be your partner and I don't care if you like them or not. I will only reassign the partner for serious reasons! So I suggest you actually try to do good on this."

Hermione smiled, this was already stuff she'd done for years. Dueling? I mean pah-leez she'd fought in a freaking war; this was going to be a piece of cake. Now all she has to do is kill Riddle then find out a way to not get caught and go back to her time…

"For right now, I'm letting you all choose your partners. So partner up!" There was a huge increase in noise as everyone got up and started talking while moving through everyone. Each person already had an idea of who they were going to partner up with so Hermione was left as a third wheel. Alphonse and Perrin paired up to her dismay and so she was left to her own luck.

As all the other people started finalizing their pairs Hermione looked around at anyone that didn't have one. "Hermione," Perrin said from behind her, so she turned to face him. "You can duel with my cousin; she's over there by that Slytherin girl with black wavy hair and grey eyes named Lestrange and the other Slytherin with brown curls who's Eileen Prince. My cousin's name is Faran Twix. If not then Lestrange isn't too bad."

Hermione smiled and nodded her thanks then went to the desk where Faran Twix was at. They looked up as she approached and Faran was the first to talk. "Hello. You must be Hermione Bellevue my cousin's friend?"

"Yeah, Hermione is just fine," she grinned. "Can I partner with one of you? I don't have one and Al and Perrin wanted to pair up." Faran grinned back and nodded.

"Sure, you and I can. This is my friend Eileen Prince and Daendra (dain-drah) Lestrange." Eileen Prince had a prominent nose with brown curls that framed her skinny face with big, intelligent eyes. They smiled in greeting towards each other. Daendra Lestrange was rather tall and willowy with long waves of black hair and grey, piercing eyes. Lestrange didn't seem to smile but more like grinned like a pixy, it was strange but goofy and Hermione instantly liked her. They all seemed to be good friends and very comfortable with one another.

"Have you all chosen?" The Professor's deep voice echoed around the room and when everyone said yes he continued, "very well. I'd like you all to line up and face each other once I move the room around. For now move to the side by the door." We all moved there and he waved his wand around a couple times to move the furniture, expand the room, and then put mats on the ground.

It looked really spectacular and grand once he was finished. He waved everyone forward and we all faced our partners on the mats. "Wands out please, but hold your fire as I explain what we're doing today." All the students pulled out their wands from their pockets while Hermione just flicked her wrist to expose a beautiful wand that was green with golden designs. "Today is just some Immobulus and Protego charms. I will not be reviewing; you should know these Charms by now and am just testing you. I will begin on this side, so I suggest keep practicing. Begin."


	5. Tom Riddle

**A/U: enjoy! (beta version btw)**

**Chapter 5: Tom Riddle**

Faran was as tall as Hermione, perhaps maybe a smidge taller and just as tan. Her green eyes bore into Hermione's latte colored eyes with stark determination. Twix seemed to be very into dueling as it would seem, she also seemed very unlike the other girls at Hogwarts that let men walk all over them and control their life. As Hermione was waiting for Faran to attack, she got the distinct impression of certain wolfishness from her.

Hermione watched (in the slow motion senses she always got from dueling or getting attacked), the ball of yellow speed towards her and she thought _Protego_, feeling the release of power as the spell worked. An almost invisible blue glow wrapped the yellow blob and squished it into nothing. Faran grinned back at her. They kept this volleying up for a while as they noticed that Professor Grynz was slowly getting closer.

Faran could tell that they neither needed practice, Hermione was very fluid with her motions and Faran only hesitated a few times. "Are you sure this is your first time dueling Hermione?"

"I've done this a million times before with my Uncle William." Hermione lied through her teeth and she hated every minute of it. She liked to think that she might get some friends and never had liked the idea of deceiving one of them. "I was homeschooled and so was taught dueling because my family was in the war zone and needed to be prepared." She slipped back into the memories easily. They came flowing through the locked away door deep inside her head that she tried really hard to keep shut.

_Harry screamed, "Avada Kedavra!" Lestrange crippled to the floor without even saying a word, Harry didn't even stop to think about it again as he started to duel with someone else. The recent wars had taught them that there was no mercy when it came to fighting for someone's life. This was what pushed the Golden Trio to start casting Dark Magic and the Unforgivable spells. They would never pull through if they were outsmarted in any way._

_Ron wailed and screeched, every part of his body burned from the inside out. He scratched at his arms, feeling as though his skin couldn't be satisfied and he itched with more fever. Blood eventually tore through the ripped skin, the itch spread to his head and Ron grasped his hair and yanked, but that didn't help minimize his need._

_Hermione stiffened as she felt a cold tip of a wand digging painfully into her neck and heard whom she presumed to be Bellatrix Lestrange's chilling laugh. "Who do we have here? A stupid, pitiful mud blood trying to fight a war she can't win," with another laugh, she continued on her lesson, "I'll teach you not to mess with us." Then with an order she made Hermione turn to face her before smiling evilly. With her wand helplessly at her side she knew that there would not be enough time to disarm Bellatrix before she was killed. "Crucio," Lestrange laughed as she said it. Pain clouded her mind as she sank to the floor withering._

All these things flashed through her mind as she heard in the back ground "Hermione! Are you alright?" She opened her eyes to find herself staring up at a growing number of people and Faran, Eileen, Daendra and the guys next to her with worried faces.

"Ughh, what happened?" With the help of Perrin she sat forward with her hand on her forehead and groaned. "I was just thinking of home and I…" she trailed off and gripped her head. People were starting to whisper and the Professor was coming towards them.

"You just screamed and fell to the ground twitching and your eyes had rolled into the back of your head. I believe you kept screaming that you were sorry you couldn't save them," Al told her worriedly and Perrin hugged her tightly against his chest. "It'll be alright," he murmured into her hair. Hermione couldn't believe that she would do that, or even why, and when did every one start caring so much? Although, Hermione didn't exactly mind it. It was nice having people care for her once again, even if they were not her true friends and family.

"What happened people? Move out of my way!" The Professor practically roared at the students and they scrambled out of his way. His perfect blond hair was tousled slightly and he looked out of it. Perhaps it was not his day, Hermione didn't think it was hers either. Professor Grynz squatted next to her and checked her eyes and her forehead for signs that she had a concussion or anything. "I think you're out of peril danger miss…?"

"Bellevue. Hermione Bellevue. I'm fine; I just think I need some air." Hermione injected.

"Bellevue," he said as if testing it out. "You can get some air now, but be sure to go to your next class. I saw you dueling earlier and so I won't have to test you tomorrow. The rest of you get back to what you were doing." People grumbled complaints and were silenced by a withering glare from Mr. Grynz. Slowly everyone dispersed into their separate groups and kept dueling. Their eyes still glanced here every once and a while. Hermione waved away her new friends' caring glances and grabbed her stuff.

She glanced once more into the room and her eyes connected with the ice cold blue that she knew to be Riddle's. For some reason she froze up and stared, the air sizzled with some foreign feeling and she snapped out of it. With one last glare towards Riddle, she frowned and walked out of class. Things were getting a little weird for her today and yesterday too. She shouldn't be fainting or slamming holes into the ground with her bare fists.

So far, all her instincts told her there was something off about Tom Riddle and this whole situation. Harry had told her all about him and Dumbledore too, but yet, now that she was here, there almost seemed there's something else to this. Hermione shook her head and walked around the school till the bell rang for her next class. Arithmancy, here she comes.

The hallways filled up with a burst of noise and shuffling of feet. "Hey there," a hand stopped her from going any further and she turned to face Daendra Lestrange. Daendra was very tall and elf-like with her movements, graceful and delicate. Yet underneath it all Hermione could see a lot of power in her form, she knew that this Lestrange isn't like her descendents.

"Where are you headed? I was on my way to Arithmancy and I saw you. I wondered if you knew where to go." The last bit was said with some hesitation and Hermione could see some apprehension behind Lestrange's eyes. After all the eyes were the doorway to the soul, just like they said.

"How peculiar. I was going there myself, and I believe I'm going the right way." Hermione smiled towards Daendra, she had a hunch on why she was so hesitant. "You're welcome to go with me if you'd like?" Daendra nodded finally. "Don't worry I'm not going to freak out like last period again. Hopefully anyways, I don't really know what went on." At the last part Daendra, who was walking alongside, coughed a bit. Hermione smiled thinly at her then continued, "It's alright. I wouldn't want to be friends with me either after that. I don't really hold grudges either, unlike most of the female population, so don't worry."

After a few moments Daendra broke the silence, "look I'm awfully sorry. I had never seen anything like that and I just… anyways. I'm not judging you for what happened. So let's just start over shall we? I'm Daendra Fareinx Lestrange and you?" She bowed towards Hermione and giggled.

Hermione couldn't help but laugh and bow back. "It's a pleasure Lestrange. My name is Hermione Jean Bellevue. If you would like to escort me to my class, mademoiselle." She did with her best French imitation. They both ended up laughing and walking to the class together.

When they entered room 303 they sat in the back area towards the windows as the morning light shined through making the light sparkle over their skin. At the desk in the front area of the room was a tall black man with bright blue eyes watching as students filed in. He had dark black hair and probably stood somewhere around 6'5''. So this was Professor Monhue then? It was written on the black board behind him and once the trail of students ended he started speaking.

"Professor Monhue, is my name. This will be Arithmancy in seventh year-," he was interrupted with a guy shouting something along the lines of 'bloody hell'. "Excuse me sir, what are you doing?" The kid had gotten up and was about to leave but paused in the doorway. He seemed to think for a moment then paused and turned.

"Sorry sir I thought this was my 2nd year Arithmancy class. I'm sorry sir- I mean Professor Monhue. If you'll excuse me I won't bother you anymore." The kid was obviously a Weasley, he was the one Hermione saw earlier with the blue eyes so much like Ron. His face was almost as red as his hair and the Professor nodded towards him, then he slipped out of the classroom.

The class proceeded and Hermione and Daendra continued to talk throughout the whole class period. She had already learned all this stuff so she didn't bother to pay attention. By the end they were talking like they'd known each other for years. "See that guy over there?" Daendra pointed to a tall guy around her height with black wavy hair that went to his chin and steely grey eyes that were highly intelligent. "His name's Cygnus Black. Mighty gorgeous ain't he?" Hermione nodded in agreement, this was Sirius's grandfather?

"Do you know him?"

"No, but Eileen does. She won't introduce me though, said it would be weird if she did seeing as she's not necessarily friends just acquaintances." There was an implied 'and' at the end of that sentence.

"And…?" Hermione prompted Daendra.

"Well, you're the Head Girl right? So you have duties with him and all correct? I'm just saying, it wouldn't hurt to get to be friends with him…then ah… you know, introduce me?" Daendra smiled goofily at her.

"Oh alright, but you owe me for this one." They smiled at each other and started to their next class.

"So what's up with this class 'How to be a Wife'?" Hermione snorted. The class sounded plain ridiculous. Almost more so than Divination and that was saying something. Perhaps Divination is different in the past, but in the future Professor Trelawney will scare the daylights out of anyone with her phony prophecies and foretelling of doom.

"It's pretty much like it says but a bunch of shit if you ask me. Those bloody idiots think that women aren't as smart as men and can't do the same things as women." Daendra scoffed at their stupidity, she was more vulgar than most of the women in this time. Men were always a bit narrow minded when it came down to things like gender. "Don't piss of the bloody teacher though, she's plain mental I'm telling you. One wrong Scourgify here and she bites your head off. Watch yourself around her Hermione."

Daendra looked Hermione up and down then smirked, "On another thought, I think you'll be her protégée or something. I know a goody-two-shoe when I see one, but oddly, you seem a bit worn for the weather to be too much like those prissy Hufflepuffs and all their self-righteousness." Hermione laughed a bit, she really was right about the Hufflepuffs though. Or at least the ones she used to know.

"I used to be like that once, but not anymore. I don't really know who I am anymore to tell you the truth." It was the truth too, Hermione wasn't certain how or when she'd changed but she had. She didn't want to admit it but she felt like she'd been meant to be a Slytherin, and it seemed she was becoming more so every day. Smirking almost seemed natural to her now and it scared her.

"Yeah, I get you. Let's hurry though, I don't want to be killed my first day here." Hermione agreed and they hurried off towards the main hall. Luckily this class was close to the Great Hall so she'd get first pickings on lunch. They entered the room to find that it had been expanded for the mass amount of girls from Gryffindor and Slytherin.

"I'm guessing Faran isn't in this class then? She's Ravenclaw right?" Hermione frowned. She didn't see too many people she knew, only Eileen in the back right corner.

"Yea, that's right, but Eileen's over there. Let's go." She trailed after Lestrange and smiled to herself, she indeed did have friends. It felt odd though, not to have Harry and Ron next to her walking through the halls, her yelling at Ron or just joking about nothing.

When Hermione sat next to Eileen and gave a nod to her, she jumped as the door slammed shut behind a short woman with a hawk nose and dark curls precisely tucked back in a neat bun on the back of her head. The woman gave off an aggravated vibe and the entire class turned into silence. Professor Rittenhouse smiled a smile that was more like a predator finding its prey than welcoming a class to the new school year. "I will not tolerate any tomfoolery in my class room. Do you understand?" Her voice was a high pitched screeching sound that was like an old cat dying, and she surprisingly like the sound of her own voice.

Apparently it was rhetorical because she just kept yapping away like a Chihuahua. "If I give you an order, obey with no hesitation. I am Professor Rittenhouse and this is your seventh year of How to be a Wife. This is a serious class, for if you are to be a good wife to your husband you must be ready to listen. And this is where your listening starts." Hermione tuned her out after that part as she could tell it was just a bunch of rubbish.

Daendra leaned over Eileen and whispered, "More like Professor Bitchenhouse. She hasn't stopped talking since she got in the bloody room." Hermione and Eileen giggled like a bunch of children and tried their hardest to avoid the attention of the teacher. "Also Chickenhouse cause she has definitely got a beak going on right there." Eileen snorted and covered her mouth embarrassed.

Daendra had pointed to the teachers hawk like nose that seemed to want to crawl off her face it was so big. Professor Rittenhouse was very birdlike in her way of walking and how she stalked her students around with her imposing stare. The woman practically screamed 'I'm a chicken', Hermione herself couldn't help but giggle a little when she kept thinking about it.

Daylight ticked away and Hermione was very close to slamming her head against the table because this lady could _talk._ In fact, that was all she did for the past half an hour. Also it was all about meaningless things that wouldn't even help any of the girls in here. Her eyes connected with Eileen's and they both rolled their eyes.

Then, Eileen turned to Hermione curiosity displayed across her small features. "So what's going on between you and Perrin?" Hermione's eyebrow rose ever so slightly at the question. Certainly not one she'd been expecting.

"Nothing. I just met him today, but he is rather dashing isn't he?" Hermione replied with a smirk on her face as she remembered crashing into him before first period. Eileen nodded solemnly and went back to doodling on her paper.

Her eyes scanned over Eileen's work, "that's really good. I wish I could draw but I can't draw anything unless you want it to look like a toddler did it." Eileen chuckled and thanked her, blush spreading from the compliment. She could tell Eileen wasn't as social as Faran or Daendra; it was how Hermione used to be before she'd met Ron and Harry.

Just like all the other classes it slowly came to a close and Hermione couldn't help but bolt out of there as quick as possible, Daendra and Eileen following close behind. "Man, I told you that woman was mental." Daendra shook her head, annoyed. "That was a complete waste of time."

They all nodded agreeing, and went on their way, forgetting about Professor Rittenhouse as they entered the Great Hall. Some people were here already but most still hadn't entered so they had their choice as to where to sit. Daendra lead them to the edge closest to the doors on the Slytherin table and once more students started coming in waved over Faran. She pounced up to them energetically and Daendra groaned.

"Oh no, what is it now? Did someone let her have chocolate?" Eileen rolled her eyes at Daendra's comment and moved over so she could sit down.

"Hey everyone! Today is great! Don't you guys think so? All of my classes have been wonderful!" Faran pumped her fist in the air along with the last word and Hermione smiled at her.

"That's good. I'm glad classes are going well for you, seems like I'm the only one that's had a bad morning then?" Hermione questioned around. Faran fell silent, she'd forgotten what happened. "If your worrying, don't. It's perfectly okay. I wouldn't be standing here if I wasn't fine."

Faran nodded and went on to tell a story on how her Charms class went and how she met this really handsome boy named Bradley Hawk. Apparently he was a fellow Ravenclaw that just moved here last year from Germany.

Hermione glanced to the door and saw Perrin and Al walking in, she waved at them and they sat down next to them. "How is everything ladies?" They all greeted each other and got some small talk going on.

"Oh there she is. Guys, I'd like you to meet my sixth year friend. This is Kahlan Black. I met her earlier in the summer this year while vacationing in Italy. This is Daendra Lestrange, Hermione Bellevue, Perrin Zerxim, and Alphonse Risin." Daendra's eyes bulged as Eileen mentioned Kahlan's last name. Though she gathered it together in time to say hello and greet the girl.

"Kahlan, huh? That's a really beautiful name." Al smiled sweetly towards her, the girl blushed and smiled.

"Thanks, I'm named after my great-grandmother who was a great witch and helped in a lot of wizarding wars with her telekinesis powers. It's said that she had to do with a lot of victories." Her and Alphonse seemed to be hitting it off and talked all through the lunch period.

Hermione sighed, almost halfway through she told herself. And only a few hundred more days or so, she groaned. How was she supposed to kill Riddle when she didn't even have a plan or anything and he was a mass murdering, not to mention genius, dark lord that was going to take over the world! Hermione is just a lowly mudblood, with perfection problems, and all alone without anyone to help so she couldn't possibly defeat him. What was she thinking?

She had Transfiguration this period and went with Faran, Eileen, and Daendra to the next classroom. It was rather far away so they left lunch early, and said goodbye to Perrin and Al who were still finishing their meals so they decided to catch up later.

The Transfiguration room was the same one they used in the future, but instead of Minerva McGonagall sitting behind the desk it was an auburn haired Professor Dumbledore. "Hey you guys go ahead and sit down I need to talk to Dumbledore." They looked at her in curiosity but she didn't explain anymore and they found a seat in the middle row to the left of the classroom.

She approached him quietly and when he acknowledge her she said, "Hey, our practice is tonight correct?" Dumbledore smiled at her and nodded. "Where would you like to meet and when?"

"Hm. Well I had considered several places but I finally decided on the Room of Requirements. You don't know where that is so just come to this room at 7. We will be working until 9 o'clock so you can still have loads of time to do your homework as I'm sure there is plenty on your first day." Dumbledore's blue eyes twinkled at her and she smiled back at him then went to find her seat.

"Welcome class. For the beginning of this year we will be studying animagus. Anyone who wants to enlighten the class?" Two hands shot up immediately, Hermione and Riddle glanced at each other but Hermione ignored his searching eyes.

"Ah yes. Bellevue, we'll give you a chance." Riddle practically snarled but his expressions changed so quickly she wasn't sure if she saw it or not. Hermione smirked, she liked the feeling of getting on his nerves, as she could tell rarely did anyone else break his façade.

"Animagus is a spell that makes the caster change into their own soul animal; the animal depends on who the caster is. It is a very high level spell and not many even attempt it for its known that it is extremely painful on the first change. I have known an animagus who had a Dog form and he told me he loved it but hated the fleas. So obviously there are some downfalls to this change." Riddle stared at her and she sent a smirk his way. The class laughed at the joke and Dumbledore congratulated her for her correct answer with 5 points to Slytherin.

The rest of the time went like that, Riddle and her answering questions back and forth. It was almost like a game and Hermione didn't notice the worried looks her friends were shooting her. They thought she was naïve and didn't know exactly who she was messing with, although she did know exactly who it is, even more so than they did. By the end, Riddle was glaring at her full blown, she just ignored the chill she got and walked out of the class.

"Hermione, whatever happened in there. Don't do it again." Hermione stopped at the tone of voice that Daendra had. Perrin, Al, Faran, and Eileen were standing slightly behind her like a posse. "You don't know what he's like, he's dangerous. He's like ice Hermione, he's completely devoid of any emotions and he doesn't even have a heart. Please, were just worried and don't want anything to happen."

Hermione frowned; she could take care of herself. "I knew how he was the first time I saw him. Just because we're friends now doesn't mean that you know me or what I'm doing. I understand that you care for me, but you're not my parents. Although I will take everything into consideration I am doing this for a purpose, I am not the naïve girl that you think I am." With that, she turned sharply around and went on to Charms.

The teacher, Rodulf Korskiev, is a Russian man that towered over everyone and had a big enough nose to compete with the 'How to be a Wife' teacher for the biggest nose award. He had plain black hair and dull brown eyes that stared hole into everyone. His voice was almost as boring as her old teacher Professor Binns. She didn't sit with her friends this period, it was a Gryffindor and Slytherin class so Perrin, Al, and Faran weren't even in it.

Riddle walked in the room and she groaned, he had practically every class with her so far except her 'woman' class. Where was God in this dreary world? He stared pointedly at her then looked away; she had no idea why exactly until he sat next to her. Her eyebrow rose and she looked around and found that every seat had been taken except for… right next to her. Hermione could have screamed in fury at that moment, but settled herself for a sigh.

"I am Professor Korskiev; these will be your seats for the rest of the year so get used to it. I will…," the teacher's voice was so boring she had already tuned him out and wrote notes with her multitasking brain. She glanced at Riddle, he was absorbed in the lesson and she watched as his long, slim fingers scratched words across the paper. It was almost hypnotic, Hermione loved the smell of new paper and ink and he smelled of peppermints. When she snapped out of her trance she noticed she had involuntarily leaned closer to smell him.

How could an evil dark lord smell so good?

After the bell rang Hermione shot out of her chair and knocked it over on her rush out the door. Riddle was left staring after her and the chair with bemusement, if it could be called that since it was hardly a tweaking of the eyebrow. Though, for Riddle, that was a lot more than he'd had in years. Riddle found this new girl Bellevue to be quite interesting, she had extensive knowledge in every class that he'd been to with her so far, and that was almost every period.

The next period Hermione thankfully didn't have Riddle in her History of Magic class. She was thinking that this might be her favorite class this year just for that reason. Although, the teacher seemed to be actually really good at his job and into what he was teaching. Not only did he get the students in on debates but he got them to actually like it. The professor's name was Grindle Bint. He was old, short and had white hair mixed with black that was slowly fading. His blue eyes searched the room and made sure everyone was doing what he instructed them to.

The debating cheered her up and she went to Ancient Runes with a smile on her face. The tables were two per table and Hermione found Daendra and Eileen sitting next to each other. "Hey guys. Sorry about earlier. Just don't try and tell me what I can and can't, but I appreciate it anyways." They nodded at her.

"It's alright Hermione but sorry there's no more room. I wish we had bigger tables. Just sit at that one next to us. Who knows, maybe you'll sit with a good looking guy!" Daendra smirked at her and Hermione rolled her eyes and laughed. It certainly felt good to have friends that didn't have to worry about saving the world, but she wouldn't have minded for some help. No one sat with her that period but it went rather fast considering she talked with her friends that whole period. She still felt eyes on her and looked to find Riddle looking at her strangely; she turned around and went back to her conversation.

XXX

_September 1st, 1900_

_Gellert sat at Godric's Hollow, it was his 17th birthday yesterday and he had been expelled from Durmstrang the previous year. They had caught him using the other students as experiments for his dark arts. Too bad, he chuckled to himself. He was so close to getting them finished; now all he needed to do was find the elder wand._

_He walked out the door and down the foggy streets; he walked in and out of the shadows like a ghost. Gellert pushed his long blond hair out of his face and stopped when he felt a burst of power from close by. Deciding to check it out he walked towards the previously felt power burst and found it came from a nearby alley._

_The darkness engulfed him as he trailed down the street. It had just rained and a lot of puddles were left over and he dodged them. Then, he stopped by one puddle; at the bottom was an hourglass shaped thing that was glowing green. It seemed to be hooked on to a necklace like thing._

_The sand in the hourglass was floating around it as if the thing had an anti-gravity spell on it. He picked it up and looked at it in the moonlight, even the sand was glowing a dull green. Gellert thought for a minute then ended up thinking that he'd look at it later, perhaps test it out. With that he slipped it around his neck._

_Suddenly, he screamed out with pain, there was a green glow surrounding him and he spontaneously disappeared into thin air. The only thing left in the alleyway was a cat screeching and some knocked over garbage…_

XXX

The bell rang, signaling that it was now their last period of the day. Thankfully Hermione had a free period, so she said her goodbyes then went off to the Head Dorm. The dorms had changed to fit their house colors and so it was green, silver, and black for Slytherin. It was still as comfy as before and she absolutely loved how it all appeared. She grabbed a book named Ill Wind and went to her favorite spot of all Hogwarts, the willow tree by the lake.

It was warmer out today than it had been earlier so she thought she might get some air and relax a bit before her practice with Dumbledore at 7 and before dinner. The air swished through her hair turning it back into that untamable mass of hair she used to have. Hermione laughed and twirled around before plopping on the ground next to the tree.

Thankfully there wasn't too much wind as to move her pages but more like a light breeze just to cool her off. She heard footsteps in the background but ignored it; it was just some random kid walking around the grounds. Two pairs of legs stopped by her but she didn't notice until she heard someone clear their throat with agitation. "Sounds like you should really get that checked out. Could have a cold," Hermione smirked towards him. She already knew who it was.

Tom Riddle's ice blue eyes, so like Draco's, looked down at her as if she was inferior. "I believe that you are sitting in my spot." It was said with such venom she almost cringed, but reminded herself to be strong and that he wasn't the evil lord just yet. He still had a long way to go, and she was going to make sure he didn't get there.

"Sorry, I was here first. You can sit next to me though, I'm not hogging it," she knew that he wouldn't sit with her. After all, a dark lord never gives up, especially if you're threatening his power.

"Get out of my spot Bellevue," he practically snarled at her and she couldn't help but smile back sweetly.

"What's the magic word?" Hermione laughed and smirked when he turned around curtly and marched off to the castle with a stiff back. "Bye Riddle. It was nice talking to you," chuckling she called after him. She also knew that she was going to pay for that, but she was sitting here first.

The rest of the time she just thought about that encounter and didn't notice that she hadn't read one page until the bell rang across the grounds signaling the end of the school day.


	6. Sticky Situations

**A/U: Hey guys, I'm just telling you now that these 'visions' that are happening are only part of it. Don't think this is just because she has horrible experiences and is just reliving them. You'll find out later why and more about it. Obviously the reasons why things happen are not always going to be explained! **

**If I get more than 3 reviews I'll write the next one quicker. :D **

**Chapter Six: Sticky Situations **

She closed Ill Wind, another book that she was occupying her mind with and stood up. Grass clung to her and she brushed it off, not wanting those green blades upon her pristine outfit. Hermione truthfully never spent this much time pondering about something, especially if it was at all related to a guy, not to mention an evil one at that. Things were already getting complicated _and _she hadn't even killed him yet. Hermione then stepped out of the shade coming from the willow tree with the sun beating down upon her already tan skin. The day was beautiful and here Hermione was wasting it, thinking about things that weren't worth thinking about as of right now.

She then smiled as an absurd idea popped into her head, why not? Twenty minutes later, Hermione sported her bathing suit and dove into the lake. This lake had so many good memories of her and the Golden Trio trying to swim without being caught by the things that lurked beneath the murky waters. People weren't exactly supposed to be swimming in here, but she always ignored it. A thing she learned from her dear pal Harry, that's where she got all her rule breaking thoughts. A feat that Hermione was actually proud of.

Hermione thought about how different it would have been if she never met Harry or Ron that fateful day on the train, would she have been like Moaning Myrtle, forever doomed to haunting that toilet? Many things related to that passed through her consciousness as she floated with her eyes closed. The trance was broken as it suddenly got darker, and when she opened her eyes, she found the face of Riddle above her, smirking.

What did he want now?

"Bellevue, how nice to see you again," he sweetly said, causing her to almost choke on the sickly sweetness of it. What could he be playing at? He obviously didn't want to be friends. "Having a swell swim?" Oh, _that's _what this was about, he was going to get her in trouble for swimming.

Hermione rolled her eyes and laughed. "Don't play coy with me Riddle. I know what you're up to, if you're going to give me a detention just do it already. Stop skipping around the point and just hand it to me straight up on a platter." She stated while moving through the water a bit more before deciding to get out. His eyes narrowed at her boldness, but when she came out of the water, his eyes shot open like saucers and he looked at her arms. Hermione suddenly felt like a piece of meat, before looking down to see what he was looking at. As quickly as that had happened, she instantly remembered all the scars and shrieked, while trying to sink back under water. How could she have not remembered those scars that stood out on her skin? Those words that called her names and disgraced her kind. Damn, how could she have _forgotten_ all about them?

Riddle quickly shot his hand out, grasping her arm and pulled her out of the water. He roughly held her in a firm grip while he bent down, close to her ear and whispered, "Very well. I see you're going to be one of those transfers, the ones who believe nothing can touch them, that they're on top of the world." Riddle stepped even closer, trying to intimidate her by sheer size, his voice dropping down a couple degrees, "I'm telling you now Bellevue. This is my school and if you don't stop your little tough charade I'm going to break you nice and slow. Just so everyone sees all those faults you hide underneath, all those little deceptions, the _lies_." Hermione shivered involuntarily then placed her hand on his firm chest and quickly shoved him away.

Scowling at him, she practically spat the words out, "People like you disgust me Riddle. You think that just because you have things to hide that everyone else does. Well, we'll have to just see who breaks who here. I'm sure people will like to know all about what you do during the night or when your doing your 'head' duties that we all know is pure bogus. It's so easy to see through your mask Riddle, your pathetic and I will not be broken by someone that's already more broken then I'll ever be. So you can take your threats and shove them up your-" Riddle snarled and cut her off, unconsciously gripping her arm harder.

Hermione cried out and cradled her arm with her other one while ripping out of his grip. "Leave me alone Riddle and I'll leave you alone!" Not completely true, seeing as she'll have to kill him, but him leaving her alone until then would be dandy with her.

When he grabbed her arm again it wasn't a hard grip it was almost… gentle. She yanked away from him and ran towards Hogwarts after grabbing her clothes. Hermione wasn't about to let him see any more of her scars if she could help it.

Riddle was a lot faster than she gave him credit for, he could have been on a track team if he wanted to, that is, if he went to a muggle school. He caught up to her easily and grabbed her around the waist, "Let go of me Riddle! RIDDLE!" Riddle maneuvered Hermione around and not being able to keep her balance, she fell upon the ground. Seeing an opening, Riddle then sat on her, finding it an easier way to deal with the girl. Apparently, when Riddle really wanted to know something, he wasn't afraid to use force.

Hermione had given up at this point, she'd forgotten her wand in her room and his strength was superior to hers. Riddle took her arm within his hand and looked at all the scars in shock. She could tell that it was a new expression for him, he usually knew everything, she guessed. Well, he certainly didn't know her.

Hermione shivered when his fingers traced over the scars that trailed down her arms. When he noticed what he was doing, he immediately stopped and jumped off her, walking off to the castle like he had done nothing at all. How could she be that stupid to let him see them? Hopefully he'd back off for a bit after that, though she doubted it. Knowing her luck it'd be the opposite.

After she covered the rest of her arms, Hermione went inside and slipped into other clothes, feeling safer than she had been before. By the time she was done changing, it was already time to head down for dinner. Hermione walked out of her Head Dorm and met up with Faran and Eileen on their way there. "Hey guys, where's Daendra?"

"Oh she had stuff to do, boys to stalk, that kind of thing. Knowing her, she'll be a few minutes late. She usually is." They laughed together and went on to the Great Hall.

Surprisingly, they met Daendra at the door and said their greetings before entering. All of them sat at the Slytherin table and drew a few looks when Perrin, Al, Kahlan, and another girl that was Hufflepuff, came over. It seemed that these days the Houses didn't mix too well. Things were about to change though, and Hermione was here to see to that.

"Hey Hermione, this is my good friend Aldwen from Hufflepuff. She was in the library earlier at lunch so we didn't get to introduce you to her." Perrin smiled at her the whole time he introduced her and she smiled towards Aldwen.

"So you were in the library huh?" Hermione couldn't wait to go there again, how she loved the smell of books and parchment. The girl's face lit up when she brought up the library.

"Yes in fact I was looking up all the ways that dragon's blood can be used in healing techniques because I'm studying to become a Healer. I found that it's extremely interesting how the chemicals react when its mixed in with various herbs. So far I believe there's only seven uses but I think I may be onto another way it can be used." Hermione knew that there was to be twelve uses in fact, and that's when it clicked.

"Wait, what was your last name? I don't think I caught it."

"Oh, it's Verticius. Aldwen Verticius." She smiled and her blond hair glistened as she spoke. This woman would definitely become famous. She would be known as one of the greatest Healers of her time, in fact she would find things on dragons blood, seeing as she's the one to discover the other five uses. It was an honor to just be speaking with her.

"Well Aldwen Verticius, I think you should definitely keep looking up things on dragons blood, I myself have done a few experiments and have found it to be extremely helpful. In fact I think I have a book that you might like, so I'll try and give it to you tomorrow if you'd like?"

Aldwen practically burst with happiness and shook her head. Hermione and her kept talking about the properties of it while the others at the table just tried to wrap their minds around all the big words they were tossing around. Sooner than later the bell rang for a final time and they left the hall. Daendra came up next to her, Eileen following behind, "Hermione do you want to come with me and Eileen to the lake to skip some rocks?"

She frowned, "I'd love to, but I have to see Dumbledore so I'll see you around guys."

"Oh I see. So why are you always going to see Dumbledore? I swear you just saw him not too long ago." Daendra snorted and Eileen nodded in agreement.

"Well Dumbledore's giving me private lessons on things like Transfiguration and stuff. It's my favorite class. That's all, bye." Hermione left with a wave of her hand not even letting them give her a response. She didn't want to be late since they already missed one lesson.

After a few minutes of silent hallways, she stopped at Dumbledore's room and knocked. "Come in Bellevue." The door creaked as she entered and the lights were almost off they were so dim. Dumbledore sat at his desk, it seemed he was writing an important letter for he waved her to a chair not far away.

Minutes later he folded the paper into an airplane and muttered a spell causing the paper to shoot off in some unknown direction. Most likely it was for Dippet, since the man seemed incompetent in his job. Honestly, Dumbledore runs the place more than the own Headmaster. "Just some business, now on to the session. We will be doing several things here that you wont see normally taught here. Occlumency and Legilimency are just one of the things, also if we get to it, animagus." He stopped when Hermione's eyebrow shot up at Legilimency and Occlumency.

"Sir, I have already learned Occlumency and Legilimency," her voice came out a bit weaker than she wanted. Being meek just wasn't in the definition of Hermione anymore, not since Harry and Ron changed her.

"You have? How interesting, I'll test your Occlumency and Legilimency today then. After that we can either work on those, if needed, or we will go on to mental magic. You are lucky Bellevue, most wizards and witches don't learn of these things for years. If I deem you ready, we may do some of that." Hermione nodded and smiled.

"Wonderful. I'll learn anything your willing to teach me Professor. Shall I cast Occlumency now?" She just couldn't wait to show him what she was capable of and how she loves learning. Dumbledore nodded then muttered _Legilimens_.

Hermione thought, _Occlumens_, she figured he was just doing a normal Legilimency spell so she built her walls up letting no information float into her mind except a picture of her wand. It was always a thing Hermione would do when she needed to concentrate, plus it would connect her to her wand more.

They went back and forth just doing simple Legilimency or Occlumency then slowly going into the harder things like creating fake memories or planting them. Also, they talked about how one could use Legilimency only when looking into someone's eyes. Another thing was how to use tricks so it doesn't exactly have to be just looking within the eyes. Such as using the reflections on mirrors to do Legilimency.

It was a long hour and a half before Dumbledore finally stopped his testing. He gave her a five minute break as he thought on what they would cover next. Hermione was positive that she didn't need any more training in Legilimency or Occlumency, seeing as she's used it in action plenty of times. The encounter with Riddle kept coming back to the front of her consciousness, and no matter how she ignored it, it still grated on her mind.

"Bellevue? Bellevue?" She blinked and looked at Dumbledore who was waving a hand in her face. "If you're tired my dear, we can cut this meeting short."

"No! I mean it's fine. I was just thinking. Now what were you saying?" His eyes sparkled with amusement at her tone, then nodded.

"Over the years, magic has lost some of the ancient powers that it once commanded, now we are left with plain imitations of such things. Such as telekinesis, mind readers, empaths and elementals. Recently, there have been discoveries of more inner type of magic. This, is what I'm going to teach you. When someone connects to their core magic, your abilities or powers triple. Not many people know these things because they never think that magic is not just waving your wand and thinking a word. Magic is using your talents for what you _feel _is needed, a Master Dueler will _feel_ what spell is coming at him not _see _it.

"Meditation every day for at least an hour is required if you're going to learn this. It will not only clear your mind for faster spells but will also increase your magical power level naturally. If this is all too much for you Bellevue the door is always there for you. I want you to know that I will not be teaching you, _you_ will be yourself. The only thing I'm here for is instruction, if you get stuck think before you ask. The answers will not always be there for you, you must seek them out in here," he tapped where her heart was, "for you to correctly do core magic." Hermione couldn't wait to see what was next, it was amazing just hearing about all these things. It was true how she thought no more of magic than a flick of the wrist and a word, now she didn't know what was what.

"I decided we will just do some meditation for the last fifteen minutes. We don't have enough time to start anything else. And a little practice wont ever hurt. Have you ever meditated?" His eyes bore down into her latte ones, and she answered no.

"It is simple after a few times. First, get comfy, you don't want to be thinking about how your legs ache when your trying to clear your mind. Second, I would suggest closing your eyes to not distract yourself more. Then start at the top of your head and slowly release any tension in any of your body until you reach your feet. Breath Bellevue, just in and out calmly. Once that's done I want you to think like waves of power are flooding down your neck into your arms and feet. Push it back up now… that's good. Slowly, Miss Bellevue. Now just repeat it."

The fifteen minutes flew by so quickly Hermione could hardly believe it herself. "Next session will be on Friday same time same place. I want you to meditate every day as an assignment. Goodbye Bellevue." She smiled and left the Transfiguration room. It was nice to be able to talk to Dumbledore, even if he was instructing her. As she walked the halls, she glanced out the window quickly to catch sight of the sun going down in the sky and slammed into someone _again._ Today didn't seem to be her day. First she walks into Perrin, then she screams and faints in class, next Riddle sees hers scars, now she walked into another poor sucker.

"I'm sorr-," she was cut off by a hand slapping her face so hard she spun around. When she looked back up it was this Barbie doll-faced girl with short curly blond hair and blue eyes that sparkled even more than Dumbledore's, just not the same sparkle. The only ugly thing on her was that sneer streching from one side of her face to the other. Hermione practically growled at the girl, her eyes that were shaded by her hair flashed.

"I said sorry, I don't want to fight you." There was a crowd gathering and Hermione didn't want to make a scene. The girl just cackled like she made a joke and looked back at her friends who in turn also laughed along. Screw it, she thought to herself, she's not a Gryffindor anymore. In this life she wasn't going to be walked over anymore, this time, it was her turn to have fun and screw around. At that moment Hermione felt a calm feeling settle in her stomach, in her other life she was a work fiend and perfectionist. This will not be the case anymore, she declared to herself, she will be everything she wanted to be, she will be… herself.

Being caught unaware was what she was trained for and yet she couldn't even fend off this girl? Hermione felt that she was getting sloppy, that she needed some major training once again. When the girl began to strike at her, she was ready this time. She blocked the strike with her right arm against the inside of the arm, near her shoulder. Next, she swung the arm right in a circular motion, then pivoted on her right foot as she brought the arm into a shihonage style hold (the arm is like someone's going to scratch their back with the same arm in a V shape).

This had all happened in seconds, so fast that the girl had no time to react as Hermione dropped her weight and pulled the arm so the girl flipped. Her arm made a popping sound as it ripped out of her socket and she hit the ground. The girl let a scream tear through her throat as pain went through her body and tears started dripping down her face as her posse came around her. The girl screamed at them and ran away, apparently she wasn't happy someone saw her get beat up. Her friends looked up at Hermione with fear plain in their eyes.

Hermione internally rolled her eyes and letting a smirk appear on her face, she did something that she never thought of doing, "BOO!" She yelled and they screeched and ran after their friend. The crowd started dispersing and she saw Perrin and Al come up to her.

Perrin spoke first, "Wow! That was amazing Hermione. I didn't know you could do that!"

"Yeah, I know." Hermione laughed, they seemed so flabbergasted that a woman could do such a thing.

"Where'd you learn that kind of thing?" Al looked at her with interest. They all started walking and she explained that she had learned it where she used to live.

"Back where I lived was a very dangerous place to live. That's why I had to learn some things to protect myself. People get killed there regularly because of the muggle war and since Grindelwald has been attacking recently. It's part of the reason why I came here actually." She left it at that, but they seemed to want to know more about her so they kept pressing her.

"I don't want to talk about it okay? It's not something I want to remember right now." Hermione glared at them and left them standing at the bottom of the stairs.

She grumbled to herself about how they wouldn't leave her alone, sure it wasn't nice, but it made her feel better to be mad about something. As she wandered around the castle it felt like the sun was crawling slower than a snail behind the horizon. After a while she began to wonder what time it was so did a spell and the letters in red that popped up were 10:23 pm. Good golly it was already past the time she was supposed to be out. So she began her journey back to her room sneaking along the nooks and crannies as to not get caught.

Her feet hardly made noise on the ground so when she stumbled upon people arguing, she wasn't surprised that they weren't aware of her presence around the corner. It was already late, so why would people other than teachers be out? This would be a good time to have Harry's invisible cloak she thought as she peaked around the edge ever so slightly.

It was dark so the figures standing in the hall weren't as visible as she'd have liked. Though she could tell that one had bleach blond hair, so she guessed that it was a Malfoy, also from the snooty voice that echoed through the building. The other male was also blond, but it was darker and they appeared to have lighter eyes, she couldn't tell exactly what color.

They were obviously not agreeing on something and she wondered what, so she quickly stepped behind some metal suits of armor and crept closer. When she stopped a few suits away from them she was able to make out the end of their conversation.

"You know what he wanted Avery, now I'm going to be punished by your stupid mistakes!" Malfoy scowled at Avery and backhanded him across the face. "Idiot! It's going to take more of my time telling everyone you gave them the wrong day! Didn't you hear him explaining that the first meeting will be on Saturday! Not Friday! Is it that hard to understand something so simple?" Avery mumbled an incoherent bout of apologies and went on his knees as if to beg forgiveness.

Malfoy just got more annoyed and kicked him in the gut. Avery was left groaning on the floor as Malfoy's feet click-clacked all the way down the hall. Meeting huh? It must be for the Death Eaters that Voldemort would eventually command. Avery picked himself off the floor and spit on the ground where Malfoy just was. "Bloody Malfoy. _My family's richer than yours, I'm purer than you_… ugh!" Hermione stopped herself from laughing just in time. Who knew that even Death Eaters fought within their group to get higher positions.

Once he walked away Hermione stepped from behind the suit of armor and looked down the hall where Malfoy and Avery disappeared in. She went up the stairs and walked all the way back to her Head Dorm.

The door creaked so loud she jumped herself, and here she was trying to be quiet as to not see Riddle. It was just her luck too that he was waiting up for her. Her body stopped on its own accord when he swiveled around in a chair by the fire. Riddle snapped his book shut and set it to the side as he looked at Hermione.

"Aren't you a bit late?" His eyes were narrowed into slits and the fire flickered on his face. She scratched the back of her head and smiled innocently.

"Do you have anything better to do than torture me with your presence?" Hermione groaned to herself and went to walk past him. This conversation was over, she didn't want to talk to him and wouldn't. He grabbed her arm as she was walking past and stopped her from going any further.

Riddle smirked in that oh so irritating way, "There are plenty of things I need to take care of. Yet here I am waiting for you just to tell you when the Prefects meeting is, and this is all I get in thanks?" This left her a speechless, he was being nice? No, it couldn't be, there must be something in it for him or he wouldn't have waited for her. Still, she told herself, she'd play his game for now.

Hermione put her hand over his on her arm and took his fingers off. They were surprisingly cold, almost ice cold. She looked into his eyes and slowly said, "sorry… when is it?" If she hadn't needed to know when the Prefect meeting was she would have just ignored him she told herself, but didn't believe it.

"Tomorrow after dinner in here." The silence dragged on for a bit and the awkwardness hung throughout the air.

"Is there anything else… _Riddle_," it was hard for her not to say Voldemort. When she thought of Voldemort his face popped into her head and the memories tagged along. They opened a flood gate of things she wanted to run far away from, but the one thing she cant run from was herself.

_Just as fast as the fighting began, it came to a stop as Harry and Voldemort circled each other like vultures eying a dead carcass. Voldemort's pale, slimy skin stood out against the darkness that seemed to flow around him. His magic crackling and sparking in the air, highlighting the tension that spun around everyone. The Dark Lord oozed pure power and strength and all hope in winning this war seemed doomed. Yet, Harry stood there with a grim smile on his face, determination set in stone, like a burning candle in the dark that lit ones way._

_They each had their own part to play…_

_The Unforgivable Spell had hit her, just like she intended it to and she flew back and hit an unsuspecting Harry. They both tumbled back and once she hit the ground, she tried to stand up but to no avail._

_Her death was already set in stone. Harry pulled her close mumbling something along the lines of 'I could have handled it Hermione, don't you leave me now too'. The blackened sky looked eerily beautiful, the black and green clouds flashing pure white with every lightning bolt cast down, an almost serene way to die. Wind whipped through Hermione's hair, sending it in all directions along with caressing her face as she wished her mother would be able to once more. Even time seemed to have slowed down, like it wouldn't be able to affect her anymore, but that was a bit too fanciful for her. It was too late for her to apologize, though she wasn't particularly sorry anyhow, but her eye lids were already closing. _

_The world swayed around Hermione, she took a shaking breath and dropped into unconsciousness. At least she could save one of her friends, she thought, at least one. All thoughts left her as her mind sunk back into itself, away from the pain, and the hate, and the hunger of death._

With an inhalation of breath Hermione shot up so fast she hit her head into Riddle's who was hovering above her at that moment. They flew opposite ways and once it started to feel a bit better she got up and found him doing the same. "What the hell was that?" Riddle stared into her eyes but she looked away.

There was no smart remark this time, "I… I… don't know…"


	7. Thank You?

Chapter Seven: Thank you?

Hermione got up as quickly as she could, trying her best to avoid Riddle and rushed to her room. Slamming the door really hard behind her, she spun around and sent a spell that would keep it magically locked. And just as she thought, Riddle was right behind her and he began pounding on the door.

"You're digging yourself a hole Bellevue!" He kept on yelling things like that and Hermione kept a steady flow of spells aimed at the door, making sure it was layered in them. Believing that it was well protected, she crawled into her huge comfy bed that screamed her name, more so than Riddle did.

The yelling outside her door kept waking her up, so she sent a muffliato at the doorway and the silence became deafening. With that, she drifted on into her normally wonderful dream land, that hadn't been too wonderful as of late.

XXX Tuesday Morning XXX

The sunlight tore through her surprisingly great dream, though she couldn't remember exactly what it was about. Over the past few nights of being here, she has had reoccurring dreams that she felt like she should know. Although, tonight must have changed something because it wasn't the same dream. How she knew that was just as strange, because she just felt it. Like the whole world had tilted the other way and no one else had felt the shift.

Shaking off those weird thoughts she did her normal routine and snuck out of the Head Dorm. Another confrontation with Riddle didn't seem like the best idea for her morning.

Her robes flowed behind her as she walked briskly away from her room and towards the Great Hall where all the taunting smells came from. They floated down the halls and came at her in a wave of air, which she inhaled deeply before sighing. Hermione's stomach grumbled so she went faster around the corner than she should have.

Ever since she had been caught distracted last night, her reactions were more in tuned than before, not wanting the same thing to happen once again. So, when someone else came rushing around the corner she was able to stop them in time from falling.

Hermione was still holding onto the guy's robes when she looked up into the face that looked so much like Harry's. She gasped as her eyes rolled into the back of her head and she was suddenly whisked away and into another vision just as she had been the night before.

_He held her in his arms as they twirled gracefully on the dance floor. The lights were dimmed and candles were floating in the sky, he looked down at her and smiled. "I want you to know that you're the only girl for me."_

"_And you, for me Jason," the words were ended with a sigh of adoration and Jason scooped her up into a twist. Blue eyes looked deep into her own and he smiled so slightly she couldn't tell if it was really there or not._

_They danced until their feet were sore, each had gone into their own world staring into each others eyes. Jason stopped her at the edge of the dance floor and took her to one of the tables sitting around the edges of the Room of Requirements. _

_Behind the table on the walls were mirrors that covered the entire room. When she looked into the mirrors she saw green eyes staring back. Her wavy brown hair was situated on the top of her head and a few stragglers hung out. Jason stood behind her and grinned, "I love you Faran Rochelle Twix." As she was about to say those same words back the ground shook beneath her heels. _

_The image cracked and faded as the mirrors tumbled down around her and she screamed… _

Hermione's eyes blinked and rolled back into place to see Jason peering down at her. The images of him and Faran were so vivid they almost felt like real life. In fact, Hermione believed them to be real, if that was even possible. The more she thought about it, the more it made sense, even Dumbledore had talked to her about those ancient powers that witches and wizards had once possessed. Could she really be one of those witches?

But when did this happen? She had never before had the Sight when she was in the other dimension. "Are you alright madam?"

Golden eyes met bright blue ones and she frowned again, the resemblance between him and Harry were incredible, all except the eyes that is. He must be a relative of Harry's, possibly his great grandfather? "Ah, yes I was just…" she trailed off as she had no idea what went on when she was 'dreaming'.

"You just ran into me so quick and then you fell down. I had no clue what to do, thankfully you were only out for a few seconds or I would have panicked. Then your eyes rolled back and stuff, but you didn't scream like earlier in Defense Against the Dark Arts. And no, I'm not in your class just everyone heard about it. Does this happen often?" Jason looked at her worriedly.

Smiling bashfully at him she shrugged, "not really sure anymore. My name's Hermione Bellevue, but somehow I think you already know that." He laughed and nodded as an answer. Sheesh, his laugh even sounded like Harry's, it was actually pretty creepy. She thought she'd enjoy meeting a relative of his but now that she did it just made her want to curl up and cry.

"Yes, well I'm Jason Thaddeus Potter. Are you friends with Perrin Zerxim by any chance? I couldn't help but notice you talking to him earlier." Surprisingly, Jason wasn't that tall, being only a inch or so shorter than her. Although he wasn't the tallest guy, he definitely didn't lack in any other areas. Soft looking dark brown hair was brushed to the side of his face revealing smooth, unblemished white skin. Blue eyes set off from the contrast between his red shirt, and broad shoulders with muscles all throughout his arms and chest.

It was like every guy in the 1940's was a gorgeous gentleman with explicable manners, well, excluding Riddle and his followers that is. So how come almost every guy in her time had to be a conniving pig-faced loser with a personality problem? Seems like all the guys died out when women started being independent, how lame.

"Yeah, I met him after breakfast yesterday. Ran into him actually." She laughed, "ironic right? So is he a friend of yours?"

"He lived next to me before Hogwarts, we were best friends." He took her arm and started walking to the Great Hall, looking distinctly uncomfortable. They _were_ best friends?

"Were?"

"He went to Ravenclaw and I got into Gryffindor, they aren't exactly friendly to one another. So, we went our separate ways. I just stopped talking to him once we got into our second year. Shame, really." Jason looked down for a bit but smiled a sad smile at her and patted her hand. "It's alright though. Life goes on, and I have new friends."

Hermione stopped walking and turned to him with a frown. "That's no way to talk! How can you say that? If he was your friend then talk to him, I'm sure he'll understand. What if you were always meant to be best friends and now, because you wont talk to him, you never become that? Life is uncertain, that's why you need to take risks and have fun before it all goes away…" her voice had slowly gotten quieter and more shaky as she went on until it faded.

Potter looked surprised at that outburst so she just went on talking, "you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to reunite you two. It'll be great, you'll see Jason." She pulled him by the wrist after her and dragged him into the Great Hall. People started whispering as she walked to the Slytherin table with a Gryffindor trailing after her.

Hermione ignored them and stopped next to Perrin who turned to face all the commotion. His eyebrows raised as he saw who Hermione had behind her. Potter was trying to get his bearings when she sat by Perrin and pulled Jason next to her. Slytherins at the other end of the table, near Riddle and his group, glared at them. Guess they didn't like someone challenging them.

"Guys, this is Jason Thaddeus Potter and I'd like you all to be nice to him. Not because he's a Gryffindor but because he's my _friend_. Perrin, I believe you can vouch for me that Jason is a good person." They all sat there with their mouths open before Perrin broke the silence with a laugh.

"Of course he is, he was my best friend after all." Now it was their turn to look shocked, apparently they didn't know about his life before Hogwarts. She wondered if they even talked about life before Hogwarts. It was like Hogwarts was a way of living for everyone here. "Nice to see you again Jason, thought I wouldn't see you again when you stopped talking to me."

Jason nodded, "yeah, sorry. I thought you wouldn't want to be friends with me since you got into Ravenclaw and I didn't." He blushed a little, ashamed at his actions. Perrin just shook it off and said he forgave him, with that settled they began once again the process of becoming best friends.

Hermione, Eileen, Daendra, and Faran sat there and watched as they chatted. Al and Kahlan were talking and Aldwen was in the library again. "What a beautiful thing you've done Hermione. Given a man back his best friend." Daendra sniffled jokingly and Hermione snorted while elbowing her in the side as to not ruin the moment.

"Ha ha very funny guys." They all laughed except Faran and they looked to see why that was, only to find her practically drooling at the sight of Jason Potter. It was a good thing he was absorbed in the conversation with Perrin or it would have been obvious. Laughing once again they started poking Faran, she snapped out of it and blushed redder than the Weasley's hair.

"It wasn't what it looked like," Faran kept trying to deny it but they just giggled whenever she did. Finally, not long before breakfast was over, she gave in and admitted she was crushing hard on Potter. When everyone else left except them four they burst out in questions.

"Didn't you just meet him?" "How can you tell?" "Is it like love at first sight?"

"yes, I have no idea it just happened, and still not sure," she answered them all smoothly and walked away, embarrassed. "See you guys in class." Hermione just shook her head with amusement.

After Twix left Hermione turned to Eileen and Daendra, "I want to go give this book to Aldwen. Save me a seat." They nodded and went off towards Potions in the Dungeons.

XXX Potions XXX

The door slammed shut behind her and she trudged into Potions in dismay. Riddle would be in this class with her and she didn't want to face him after yesterday. If he was really dedicated to finding out her secrets she knew she couldn't stop him. Hopefully she'd find out his before he does the same, or else she would be toast.

Right in between Faran and Daendra was an open seat, on the other side of Daendra sat Eileen who was quietly doodling. Hermione claimed the seat just as Professor Slughorn stalked into the room.

Each of her friends nodded at her as if saying hello and she smiled in return. Then she glanced around the room, not really looking but somehow unconsciously searching. Ice blue eyes flashed to hers and she froze, the room got colder. This day wasn't going to be good, she thought while turning away and began to take notes.

XXX DADA XXX

Professor Grynz looked at the class with a smile on his face. "Today, I'm assigning your partners. I stayed up half the night to decide, so you better be happy with what you get." On his red wood desk was a list of names, he started reading them out after telling them to get up and stand by their partners when called.

Faran got partnered with Bradley Hawk, and went happily to his side. Behind his back she gave Hermione a wink and a sly smile. Daendra chuckled and elbowed Eileen who just rolled her eyes in response to their immaturity.

Daendra and Alphonse got called and Daendra stared in horror, they didn't get along too well. Much to her dismay she walked slowly to him and huffed. Hermione and Eileen giggled at her melodramatic personality. Perrin was named off after Alphonse, his dueling partner turned out to be Eileen Prince. Eileen blushed slightly as she shuffled over there, he smiled when she came over and she couldn't help blushing harder.

Hermione smirked at the sight, now she knew why Eileen had asked her about Perrin the other day. The girl clearly had a thing for Perrin Zerxim. "Hermione Bellevue, and…" The suspense had her going crazy, she absolutely hated surprises. Hopefully it wouldn't be…

"Tom Riddle." Her mouth dropped open. Hermione could have sworn that she'd just been thinking that. The gods' were surely laughing at her right now, how could they be so cruel?

She shot out of her chair, "but sir-," he cut her off before she got another word out.

"There will be no changes in dueling partners for you two, I'm sorry. Even if I needed to change your partners I can't, I looked through all the names and not one other person matched your two power levels. I've never seen any two students so adept at dueling as you two in all my years. It's like your born for fighting." She snorted, he didn't even know the half of it.

"Thank you Professor Grynz, but I must press on you my extreme distaste for my to be partner. If there is not another person here I can duel with, please, let me not participate in the dueling sessions." A frown had crept onto her face throughout her whole speech. Hermione already knew the answer but still hoped that he would excuse her from dueling. If Riddle was to be her partner, she didn't want any part in it. Being his dueling competitor wasn't her idea of fun, she'd surely be sent home in a coffin by the end of it.

"I'm sorry Bellevue, but the Headmaster has required that _all _students are to have dueling practice. There's nothing I can do." She scowled and grumbled the whole way over to Riddle's side. A smirk was plastered on the bastard's face and she huffed worse than Daendra.

"Shut up Riddle," she mumbled to him as the Professor called the next names, Cygnus Black and Haelen Ley. Hermione didn't listen to Riddle's response as she realized who the girl partnered with Black was, and he glared at her when she didn't answer. The Barbie-doll faced girl glared over to Hermione and flashed a seductive smile towards Riddle, though he didn't even notice seeing as he was focusing his death stare at her. She glanced between the two and started laughing, so that's what yesterday was about?

The Professor stopped and looked pointedly at her, "something you find funny?" Hermione cleared her throat and shook her head no. He continued reading them off and finished with Padney Parkinson and Dariella Goyle. Who'd have figured that Goyle and Parkinson would have the same amount of power, Hermione giggled to herself. Riddle shot her a look and she couldn't help but roll her eyes, he knew exactly how to get under her skin.

"Everyone to the side of the room please." All the students complied and with a wave of his wand the four seat tables turned into two seat tables. "You and your partner will sit in your assigned seats everyday, I will not tolerate any switching of seats. A detention will be given if I find any of that." Professor Grynz continued talking and giving instructions on the proper dueling positions after he gave them their seats.

Riddle's long, elegant fingers slid a piece of paper over to her, it read 'You can't run forever, Bellevue.' Smirking she grabbed her quill and ink bottle from the side of her desk, it was exactly the kind of hand writing she'd imagined from Riddle. Graceful and elegant, like his fingers. Hermione frowned, she'd imagined his hand writing? Shaking that off she wrote back, 'You can't hide forever, Riddle.' The paper slid smoothly over to him and she crossed her arms as he scribbled his next message. Professor Grynz just kept talking, his speech felt like it'd never end, and she'd never get out of here. Though, a little part of her like talking to Riddle, he was after all a brilliant wizard. Albeit for all the wrong reasons, he did remain woefully ignorant in other areas of magic.

'I will find out what you're hiding, it's only a matter of time. You would have already been dealt with if not for my disliking of wasting such raw talent. Join me, and you will have whatever you desire.' Hermione chuckled, first it was intimidation, then bribes. What could be next? But wasn't it her idea to work from the inside anyways? As she pondered as what to say she tapped the quill on the desk. Just because she was now Slytherin didn't mean she'd give in to simple bribery like that.

'If you were actually any closer to finding out what I'm supposedly hiding then you would have not bothered asking me. I'll clue you in on a secret Riddle, and I know that you have no trouble keeping secrets.' She paused, then pushed it over to him. Hermione didn't know what caused her to say that, she just felt that being mean to him didn't seem to be working. Perhaps it wasn't the best approach. It killed her to even think it but she needed to start being serious here, it couldn't hurt her to be nice… right?

'It will be our little secret. I promise.' The smugness behind his eyes showed that he thought she was falling for his bribe. In all reality, she wasn't, Hermione just wanted to see the look on his face.

'What I desire is to walk in my home and feel that I'm not alone anymore. I want to laugh without a care in the world and be able to smile without fearing someone can see through my façade. The things I want are things you can't possibly give me Riddle, because you can't see people for anything other than a way to get what you want. Don't think I'm one of your followers and will gladly throw away my humanity for power and wealth. The power of love is all I need.' As he read the note his face got considerably darker, he crumpled it up and it burst into flame.

The class went by without a response from Riddle, or even a look her way. It bugged her that he just kept acting like nothing ever happened. She guessed it was his way of saying fuck off, but what annoyed her the most was she wondered what he was thinking about. Hermione had never before met someone as difficult as him, or as complicated and mysterious.

XXX Lunch XXX

Lunch had just started and Hermione had just bitten into some of Hogwarts delicious ham sandwiches when Jason came to the Slytherin table with two other guys and a girl that gave her a feeling of déjà vu. They looked around at the other Slytherins nervously at first then gathered their Gryffindor courage and went up to Hermione and the rest of them.

"Hey Hermione, Perrin. These are my friends I'd like you to meet." Jason pointed to a tall blond haired kid with dark blue eyes, "this is Horace Hunter and Liam Blade, we usually just call him Blade." Liam was shorter than Jason with light chocolate brown hair and green eyes. "And one of my close friends Minerva McGonagall." Hermione coughed and slowly regained her posture.

How didn't she realize who it was the first moment she saw her? Minerva smiled at her, dark brown ringlets framed her face and made her rather fetching. She still had the glasses even now, and the same sharp blue eyes that caught everything.

"Oh, hi. I'm Hermione and these are my friends Al, Perrin, Faran, Daendra, Eileen, and I believe Aldwen is in the library. So you'll just have to meet her at dinner. You're all welcome to sit here, make room guys." They all shuffled around so everyone was able to squeeze in.

After the introductions were over they all started their own conversations and got to know each other better. Hermione looked over all her new friends and smiled, they'd certainly gathered a lot of people and it was only the second day here. Daendra and Horace were getting along, Blade and the rest of the guys were currently talking about the Quidditch tryouts coming up this Friday. She noticed Alphonse was giving Horace a glare for some reason and Hermione's eye brow shot up.

XXX Ancient Runes XXX

The bell rang for the end of History of Magic and Hermione got up gratefully. It was a long day and she's dreadfully tired. She grabbed her satchel and was on her way to Ancient Runes. It was one of her favorite classes so she didn't mind as much. While yawning she took a wrong step and slipped, her bag flew out of her hand and into a statue as she fell to the hard marble floor.

Hermione groaned and turned onto her back, stupid clumsiness, she thought. Her bag had spilled all its contents onto the ground and she went to clean them up but stopped short when she saw the book she'd summoned earlier. It seemed Hermione was forgetting a lot of things these days. After promising herself she'd read it later she shoved it to the bottom then piled the rest of her things in and went down the hall. The bell rang once again and she sighed, she'd be late for Ancient Runes.

Hermione pushed the door and walked in the class head held high, only to notice that Riddle's table was the only one open. Her friends mouthed 'sorry' to her and she just trudged over to the seat and sat down. Riddle turned to her finally and gave her a glare fiercer than earlier.

"Open your books and turn to page 409. We will be talking about the…" she scribbled notes hurriedly as the teacher Jane Wick went on about the history of runes. It was already things she'd learned so she zoned out for the class.

Thankfully it went by pretty quickly and she was spared her torture of being next to Riddle when the bell rang. Something dropped out of his pocket as he left his seat and practically ran for the door. Hermione tried to call after him, but by that time he'd already left.

A quill sat by his chair and she bent to pick it up. She'd just have to give it to him at the Prefects meeting.

When she got into the Head Dorm she fell upon the couch near the fire and sighed. So many things had occurred in the last few days she has been in the past and it was giving her a lot of stress not to mention a humongous headache. She set down a bowl of puppy chowder for Draco and water next to it. Then Hermione placed her bag near her and opened it to grab the book named Advanced Magic and Theories on Time Travel.

It was a huge book that covered her entire lap, she flipped it open to the first page and started reading. The text wasn't that hard of a read but it was over an hour of reading before she found anything useful on her situation.

_Time is a very unstable thing, it will do many unpredictable things unless careful. Any time someone uses a time-turner to go to the future or past they are sent into a 'different' dimension. In this dimension they go back, so when ever someone changes time they create a new dimension parallel to the one they were first in. It is a very complicated hypothesis that I will only touch on. _

_Some believe that once locked in a time where there's no way to change back to the first dimension then there is no possible way back. Contrary to that belief I have findings that prove one might be able to open a portal to a different time using core magic. Only with core magic is someone able to open a door, but it is still very rare considering there are a limited amount of people with the necessary natural power level. _

_The steps to this procedure is stated in the back with the other spells and conjurations listed. A door is hard to make because the whole time it's opened someone is using their own core to keep it that way. It's not only that one has to use power to __**open **__it, but also to __**keep**__ it open. This is the tricky part, it's why this process would better be used with two people than one. _

Hermione pondered on those few informational paragraphs while scratching Draco's fur. Suddenly, the door to the Head Room opened and revealed a pleased looking Riddle. She slammed the book shut and shoved it into her bag before he read the title.

Though, her efforts were for not when he purposely ignored her and marched into his room. Hermione entertained the thought of knocking on his door and giving him his quill before shaking her headroom. He probably wouldn't even answer the door, after the meeting will just have to do.

A part of her didn't know why she wanted to give it back, but her Gryffindor part of her scoffed at her Slytherin thoughts. After all, Riddle was poor, as she recalled Harry telling her. It wasn't like he was made of money, maybe that's why he's so meticulous and clean.

Riddle had to make up for his lack of money by making everyone do as he commanded so he could show them it wasn't all about money or blood. It was really depressing once someone thought about it, anybody could become like Riddle if they went through the things he did.

The more she kept thinking about it the more it made her think that _maybe_ Riddle did have a heart, but just kept it hidden for fear of getting hurt? Truthfully it sounded a bit cliché, but perhaps it was part of the reason he started this domination plan.

Hermione went back to reading and hoped she'd find more clues to fix her situation after that epiphany.

XXX Dinner XXX

Plates of food appeared on the four different tables as she sat down on the hard benches. Hermione was starving after reading for two hours and scooped food onto her plate as the Great Hall filled in.

She nodded to each of her new friends as they came in and sat down around her, including the Gryffindor friends of Jason. Aldwen came in last with her head stuck in a book. Hermione smiled at the resemblance between the future (or past) Hermione and Aldwen Verticius.

"Hey Alddy, we have a few people we'd like you to meet if you'd get your face out of your latest book," Al chuckled at her with his normal, goofy smile. When she sat down and put away her book Alphonse continued, "this is Liam Blade, aka 'Blade'. Horace Hunter and Minerva McGonagall." He pointed at each person as he named them and Aldwen smiled and nodded at each in return.

They all ate in silence tonight, for everyone felt a bit worn after the long day. It seemed there was a lot of homework this night, and it was only the second day out of a few hundred. Hermione grabbed her bag, "I'll see you guys later. Perrin, Horace, Eileen, I'll see you in the Head Room for our Prefects meeting in thirty." They nodded, seeing as their mouths were full of the scrumptious food.

XXX Prefect Meeting XXX

Hermione waited patiently, hands folded on her lap while the Prefects filed into the room. Riddle waited in the other chair identical to hers to the left of her, as they faced the expanded room. They had worked silently before the Prefects had arrived to expand the room and made more seats for the twenty four Prefects.

Two Prefects, one male the other female, were picked from 7th, 6th, and 5th year to become the 'elite' students of Hogwarts. Including the Head Girl and Head Boy and that totals up to twenty four students. She smiled at her friends as they entered together. Once everyone was there and seated they began, or Riddle did at least.

"I have made a chart of who, when, and where people will be patrolling the corridors. Your partners will not be switched during that month, but they do vary from month to month. If you're not happy with the person, deal with it." No one even grumbled a word as he spoke, they were all contentedly listening to him. If it was out of fear or reverence Hermione didn't know.

As he continued his speech Hermione noticed that one of the Weasley twins' was a sixth year prefect. Also not far from Riddle, go figure, was Haelen Ley who now had bandages covering her shoulder. The girl was giving her a stare that could kill, so she looked elsewhere. Next to the Weasley girl was a boy in fifth year, a Ravenclaw, that had long bleach blond hair and black eyes that seemed glazed over. To Hermione he looked like a Lovegood, but she couldn't be sure.

Hermione let Riddle handle all the speaking because he didn't even go over any of this with her, even if he was supposed to. "The teachers have been speaking about having a ball for this upcoming Halloween. Raise your hand if you concur with this idea." Every person except Riddle and three other boys raised their hand.

The meeting went faster than she anticipated, people were leaving and she just hung back until it cleared out. When the last person finally trailed out she turned to Riddle, just a _little_ pissed. "So, when were you going to tell me you went ahead and did the schedule without consulting me? I'm Head Girl too if you haven't noticed! The whole point of it is to help each other do these duties, not you just do them behind my back!"

"Well, you looked a little busy fraternizing with your friends. I reckoned that you didn't have time to do any of it," Riddle replied coolly. He just appeared to have an answer for everything now didn't he? God dammit, when she got pissed she didn't want him talking her down with plain logic, that was her line!

"Fine," she said through clenched teeth. "Next time, talk to me before you reckon anything!" Hermione breathed in and out before speaking again slowly, "in Ancient Runes you dropped this and I thought you'd like it back." After handing the quill to him she went to leave only to be halted by a hand on her arm.

She braced herself for another insult or something but was taken by surprise, "My thanks, Bellevue." Hermione looked into his eyes and saw that he at least partly meant it before acknowledging him with a shake of the head, even if he did look disgusted to say it. Then she went in her room Draco trailing behind her. Things were sure getting weird around here, evil lords saying thank you, who knew?


	8. A Riddle For Riddle

_A/U: hey guys. This chapter its very important that you get it's __**Riddle's POV **__over the last few days. I'll show you how he slowly changes every once and a while to change it up a bit. _

**I'm sorry but I'm leaving for a week or so! I regret it but I'm going to give you a very long interesting chapter for the few days that I'm gone. So it's kinda a win win situation. **

**Please at least 5 reviews! :D Adios amigos.**

**Chapter Eight: A Riddle for Riddle**

XXX Three days before Hogwarts XXX

Riddle walked through the streets of London, breathing in the fresh morning air after the rainfall. He had snuck out of Wool's Orphanage to get some things for his final year at Hogwarts in Diagon Alley. Mrs. Cole wasn't very cooperative so he had to push her a bit to make her more accommodating to his wishes. It actually made him smirk just thinking about it. Sure he wasn't supposed to use magic out of school, but they couldn't very well track him if he didn't use a wand.

Riddle had been practicing as of late, so far he'd only been able to use little spells or bigger ones for short periods of time. Still, it was a start, and soon he'd be out of that dump. When he was a kid, he remembered using wandless magic to aid him in his influence over the other children. That control had faded ever since he got use to using a wand to channel magic through. He should have thought of it ages ago.

He just passed Borgin and Burkes and went into an alley, when he stopped abruptly, his head turning to the side just an inch. Delicate golden ringlets bounced around as the girl laughed joyously to an empty street, just staring up at the sun. It was like an aura of light surrounded her, it drew him in and repelled him at the same time. People like her attract others like honey to bees and she doesn't even have to try. Riddle could tell in one glance that this girl was a force of good down to her bones.

It was odd, hearing her laugh cut short so fast and have the sweet illusion crumble. After her laugh's echo died out he finally saw past her mask, it intrigued him as to what she was burying deep in those eyes. She started looking around, and a part of him jumped when her eyes connected with his. Her gaze felt as though she could see through him, to his very soul, or lack thereof. Those golden orbs seemed to hold volumes of strength and pain in them, even the manner of how she held herself bellowed her power. Gathering his wits he stopped himself of thinking about such rubbish and left the girl smirking after him.

XXX Monday Morning (First Day) XXX

The final year was already upon him and it hadn't even felt like he'd been here that long. Time was such an amazingly complex thing, past, present, future, each held their own 'times'. At least that's what he's come to believe.

Riddle brushed off lint on his tattered robes, he would be arriving at Hogwarts soon and couldn't wait to see those tall, majestic towers. Hogwarts is the only thing that even came close to being his home, and even then it wasn't completely safe because of that conniving Dumbledore. He saw through everything that Riddle did, although he'd never be able to prove anything. It didn't even seem possible that Riddle could make mistakes, at least to his followers that is.

There were many interesting things that were going to happen this year for Riddle, last year was just the beginning. He smirked and went back to his compartment with Malfoy and the others. They greeted him with reverence, but he just ignored them. All these purebloods are supposed to be so grand, yet they obeyed a half-blood… pitiful creatures.

He wondered why they hadn't sent out the letters for who was to be Prefects, probably some malfunction. If Riddle didn't get the Head Boy badge then he doubted anyone else did, it wasn't a hope, it was fact. No one else was better in this school than he, and he liked to keep it that way.

Scenery passed by in a flash, becoming slower as the train got closer to the impending Hogwarts. With a toot, the train pulled into the station and the students started getting off the train with excitement. Riddle smoothly walked down the steps and onto the platform, a small predator smile gracing his face. Yes, it was going to be a good year, he breathed in the fresh air before going towards the castle. Hagrid had started this year as the ground's man so he escorted the first year's to the boats.

His followers trailed after him like lost puppies all the way to the Great Hall where they sat together near one of the ends of the Slytherin table. The Great Hall was magnificent in its different colors representing the various houses.

Malfoy sat next to him, he always thought of himself above the others for being one of the first to join. Not to mention his 'purer than pure blood' as he called it. The others agreed to their places but disagreed more than black and white colors mixed. Black, Nott, Avery, and Crabbe all sat down around him.

It wasn't long before Padney Parkinson, Dariella Goyle, and Haelen Ley came over and sat next to the others. Padney had beady little eyes filled with obedience and obsession. Haelen Ley was a bother to Riddle, always trying to flirt with him and get him alone. So he just ignored her completely along with the other girls, Slytherin girls just didn't take no for an answer. Haelen was exactly the type of person that took advantage of a person because of what they were doing or who their friends were.

They even spread rumors when he rejected them flat out, saying things like he's homophobic. He ended that last year, when they figured out screaming on the floor what they'd done wrong. Also the incident with that twit Myrtle ended any other machinations they could possibly come up with. Haelen Ley, was a different matter though, even the Cruciatus Curse didn't dissuade her from latching on to him whenever she could. Ley was attached to him more than he had time to detach her from him. There was more to her than seemed be, it wasn't exactly a problem but he'd have to _discuss_ it with her soon.

Dippet started his long-winded speech, that honestly nobody heard what he said or even tried to look like they were. Although, he didn't care seeing as he just kept going until finally it ended and the sorting began. The last person was called and he was sorted into Ravenclaw, as the cheering died down Dippet spoke up again.

"Hello all, because of a tragedy there is a transfer student that is coming to Hogwarts. I plead you to not disturb her and not to ask about her past, this is a new beginning for her." Riddle straightened as he heard this announcement, this was new. Not many things occurred without him knowing.

"Now, give a warm welcome to our transfer… Hermione Bellevue." The Great Hall's doors creaked open as the girl entered, Riddle was shocked to see that it was the person from a few days ago that had caught his attention. The woman who was named Hermione strutted so calmly and gracefully to the dais he'd thought for a second that she was a Veela.

As the hat was placed upon her head the hat immediately said, "RavenclawSlytherin." This immensely interested Riddle, there were not many who were like the different house combined so much where it would do such a thing. Usually it was one or the other, but this time it was a mix. Dumbledore asked Bellevue where she wanted to go and she looked to be thinking hard on it.

"Slytherin," the words were said in a manner where it didn't matter whether they meant anything at all. Riddle thought on why this Hermione chose Slytherin above Ravenclaw, not that Slytherin wasn't the superior choice. Dumbledore pondered at her for a few seconds before granting her the house. It was almost like he knew that she was going to become a Slytherin before _she _even knew it.

Professor Dumbledore might be crafty, but he didn't know that Riddle promised to himself he would get revenge on him for all the hardships he creates for him. There were not many who knew that he wasn't the nice intelligent boy that everyone (not including his followers) thought him as. If Dumbledore somehow showed others that all his work would be for naught.

Bellevue looked across the crowd after she sat down, not far from him actually, her eyes glanced towards him and held him in a daze. A smirk appeared on her plump, pink lips and Riddle couldn't help wondering if she even tried to get people's attention.

"Everyone, there's an announcement for the new Heads this year. We were unable to send out the forms due to some difficulties, but everything's worked out now," Dippet added when people started talking loudly. "Now, the head boy for this year is…. Tom Riddle!"

Just as fast as it came the smirk was wiped off her face and she started choking on her drink a little when his name was announced. He rose to get his badge, does she know of him? There was no way that she could possibly know anything about him as he'd never seen her before a few days ago.

No more smirks appeared, only a growing frown. Her eyes trailed him all the way back to his seat, she glared at him fiercely as if he'd done something to her. "I know that she's new but Hermione Bellevue is our Head Girl for this year. We have tested her beforehand and found her to pass everything with flying colors. Please give an applause for her." This time it was Riddle's turn to be surprised, she'd gotten the Head Girl position? Bellevue must be very talented magically to get it, it wasn't like Dippet to do something like this.

Dippet said something about the head of the houses showing where the dorms were to the first years though Riddle was only half listening. For the moment, he was absorbed in watching Bellevue. She seemed to know that he was but ignored him purposely just like he did to his followers. It made him feel foolish and angry, being treated like he didn't matter.

Riddle was broken out of his thoughts when a bark was heard. A little puppy jumped onto the table and dashed down it towards a horrified Bellevue. The puppy stopped before Bellevue and yipped again. She stood up to see everyone looking at her and smiled anxiously.

"Uh, sorry?" Bellevue flicked her wrist and her wand appeared, with another flick and twist the whole table's clothes and food was cleaned. Then she shot out of there her footsteps hardly making an echo even though a pin could have been heard being dropped on the floor it was so silent.

Malfoy turned to the others, "that girl is definitely mine." Complaints and such were echoed by everyone of the guys. They played a game where they would call which woman they wanted and no one else could touch them. Normally Riddle would never say anything during their games but he didn't want Malfoy to even get close to her with his filthy hands and perverted mind.

"No." They all looked towards him stunned, "you will not touch her. None of you will. If I find out one of you is pursuing her there will be hell to pay." Riddle glanced at the door where she left, "she's _mine_." He looked back at them with a final glare and glided across the floor after Bellevue.

For a while Bellevue just meandered around the halls, but when she stopped suddenly by a window he hid quickly. She must have seen something because her lips tightened and she paled considerably. Hermione fell to the floor, "Harry… Ron! I miss you two so much! Is there truly a god out there? If so, where did he go when he skipped over us? There is no mercy in this world! What have I done to deserve this?" Her fist pounded into the ground with a tremor and she looked shocked when she found a dent in the marble.

Before she noticed him he decided to leave and went to the Head Dorm. He replayed over and over again what she said and what it could have meant. Dippet hardly explained anything about this girl, all he said was that a tragedy had happened and that's why she moved. What had happened where she used to live? So many questions that he wanted answered.

The Dorm was colored green and silver, go figure, and banners of the house were plastered across the walls. He saw that she had already taken one of the rooms, the left door was closed and the right was cracked open a cinch. The room to the right was a lot better than the old dorms he used to have to share with annoying imbeciles like Malfoy and his lot. Riddle entered the room and sat down at the beautifully hand carved desk, he did not sleep but instead wrote the schedule and planned things for the Prefects meeting.

XXX

Riddle entered the Great Hall the next morning for breakfast, his eyes already searching. He found her among the teachers by the long table at the head of the room talking to Dumbledore. Frowning he took his usual seat, she seemed too cozy with the Professor.

When he turned to look at the rest of them they looked away quickly, they were hiding something from him. "What is it?" Nott almost jumped out of his skin because of the way venom dripped from those three words. "Look at me Nott." He singled Nott out since he always appeared to be the one causing trouble or in the middle of it. When Aden Nott finally looked up into his eyes Riddle thought, _Legilimens,_ images and thoughts came into his head.

They never knew that he did this, they could only guess at his powers when he knew things before anyone told. It kept them on their toes and suspicious of each other, if they were suspicious of one another they might just tell him things on other people. It worked wonders to keep them in line and focused.

"So you all think its funny do you?" They all paled and glanced around, wanting to be anywhere but here. While he was off chasing Hermione last night they'd chatted about how their lord actually likes girls. Fools. "I will deal with you all on Saturday. Especially you _Ley_." Haelen grimaced, she knew what she said.

Riddle looked at his schedule again, first three days of the week he had Potions, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Arithmancy, Herbology, lunch, Transfiguration, Charms, a free period, Ancient Runes, then another free period. The last day's class periods consisted of double Potions, double DADA, lunch, Ancient Runes, double Transfiguration, Herbology and a free period. At the bottom of the paper it stated in bold letters ***Astronomy in Tower at Midnight on Tuesday's and Fridays.* **

He gathered all his things and left for Potions. The room was as dark as ever and students were already packed in. There were hardly any seats left so he chose one nearing the front.

A few minutes after the bell rang the door banged open and he heard a tinkling of a laugh. Bellevue walked into the room on Perrin Zerxim's arm. Riddle glared at them, she already had people falling at her feet willingly. She sat down a few seats away and Slughorn walked to her, "Now why were you two so late? Zerxim I expected you to put up an example for Miss Bellevue's first day here." Hermione's face altered slightly and she donned a bashful look completed with the batting of long eyelashes.

"Sir, it was my entire fault. I'd lost my favorite necklace that my old friends gave me and he graciously offered to help me even though I was already late. Thanks to his help I didn't get lost and found my necklace. If there's anyone you should punish it should be me." Her lying skills were very good, in fact almost as good as his own. The way she slid her eyes to the floor after her speech showed just that. It was one thing to say things smoothly but a total other thing to show normal body language for those situations.

"Ah," Slughorn chuckled, "I see, very well then. Don't be late next time. And 5 points to Ravenclaw for helping another in need. Now as I was saying…" After the class when Hermione leaped out of her seat and pretty much dashed out of the room, Zerxim and his friend Risin trailing after.

Riddle followed after them and kept close enough to hear what they were saying but far enough where he didn't have to worry about being caught. Not like they would realize it anyways, they were absorbed in each other. By the time he noticed he was late the bell had rung and he walked into the room.

"I'm sorry to interrupt Professor, I had some head duties to attend to I hope you'll forgive my disturbance." All the Professors sucked up to him so it was no surprise when Professor Grynz did the same.

"That's fine. Find a seat Riddle. Now where was I? Ah, yes, this year we'll be learning about various types of creatures and how to defeat them, the Unforgivables, and we will also be participating in dueling for the first time." A chorus of cheers went through the room and were silenced by a look from the Professor. "As I was saying, today will be your first official duel to test you guys of your power and who you will be dueling with after this for the rest of the year. They will be your partner and I don't care if you like them or not. I will only reassign the partner for serious reasons! So I suggest you actually try to do good on this."

"For right now, I'm letting you all choose your partners. So partner up!" Malfoy reluctantly agreed to being his partner. There was nothing worse than dueling with Riddle, one could end up seriously injured. "Have you all chosen?"

"Very well. I'd like you all to line up and face each other once I move the room around. For now move to the side by the door." The student lined up by the wall as Professor Grynz moved about the room flicking his wrist here and there. When it was all complete he faced the class.

"Wands out please, but hold your fire as I explain what we're doing today." Riddle pulled out his wand as did the others. "Today is just some Immobulus and Protego charms. I will not be reviewing; you should know these Charms by now and am just testing you. I will begin on this side, so I suggest keep practicing. Begin."

As the class went on Riddle didn't know exactly what happened or why, it happened so fast that even he couldn't catch it. Bellevue had fallen to the floor screaming with tears pouring down her tan cheeks, "_I'm so sorry! I couldn't save you I'm so sorry! RON! I'll kill you for this Bellatrix I'LL KILL YOU!" _It was cut short, her body wiggled like she'd been Crucioed before she gave one last scream and fell silent.

"Hermione! Are you alright?" Her new friends surrounded her with worried faces and frowns.

"Ughh, what happened?" Hermione touched her cheeks to find them wet with her tears, she wiped them away and looked at Zerxim. How could she not know what occurred?

"You just screamed and fell to the ground twitching and your eyes had rolled into the back of your head. I believe you kept screaming that you were sorry you couldn't save them," Risin told her smiling a bit to ease the news. Zerxim hugged Bellevue while murmuring something to her and Riddle couldn't help scowling at him. How dare he touch her.

"What happened people? Move out of my way!" Professor Grynz pushed through the crowd of people to Bellevue sitting on the floor. He checked her forehead and eyes for a concussion. "I think you're out of peril danger miss…?"

"Bellevue. Hermione Bellevue. I'm fine; I just think I need some air."

"Bellevue," he said as if testing it out. "You can get some air now, but be sure to go to your next class. I saw you dueling earlier and so I won't have to test you tomorrow. The rest of you get back to what you were doing." They all grumblingly went back to their dueling but Riddle wasn't fully into the dueling so Malfoy got off easy.

Hermione glanced to Riddle one last time, and he thought, _Legilimens._ He smashed right into a wall as thick as his own, so, she knew of Legilimency and Occlumency. Another thing to add to the growing list of interesting things this girl had hidden.

XXX

Transfiguration came faster than he'd expected, he'd been lost in his thoughts of Hermione. He strutted into the class with his head held high and picked a seat. Bellevue entered after him with her friends and took a seat on the opposite side. "Welcome class. For the beginning of this year we will be studying animagus. Anyone who wants to enlighten the class?"

Both his and her hand were the first to shoot up, he looked to her and was rebuffed when she promptly looked away. "Ah yes. Bellevue, we'll give you a chance." He snarled at her, how dare she.

"Animagus is a spell that makes the caster change into their own soul animal; the animal depends on who the caster is. It is a very high level spell and not many even attempt it for its known that it is extremely painful on the first change. I have known an animagus who had a black wolf form and he told me he loved it but hated the fleas. So obviously there are some downfalls to this change." Everyone laughed and he grudgingly admitted that she matched him for everything when she sent him a smirk. As time went on they battled back and forth with questions, Dumbledore had already awarded fifty points to the Slytherin's by the end of the class.

Riddle glared as she got up at the end of the period, she stopped to talk with her friends. They must have disagreed on some matter for Bellevue to walk off like that.

Pondering on Bellevue he walked to his class slowly, not caring whether he was a little late or not. So far he'd had almost every period with her, so maybe she'd be in this class too. Riddle wasn't exactly sure why he was excited about that, it puzzled him to no end.

When he stepped into the room he found only one seat open, and Bellevue was sitting in the chair next to it. He peered at her then looked away and walked over to the table to sit down. The Professor introduced himself as Professor Korskiev and told them these were the seats they'd have for the rest of the year. Bellevue sighed dejectedly next to him and he frowned.

His hand flashed across the paper as he listened to the Professor go on and on. To the right of him he noticed Bellevue had leaned close, but shot straight back up when she realized it. Throughout the whole time she watched him like a hawk, he did the same though with more subtlety.

When the ring echoed through the building Bellevue ran out of the room knocking the chair down after her. His eyebrow raised ever so slightly, she really wanted to get away from him. Not many girls would do such a thing, most would sidle up to him and try to catch his eye. Although Riddle didn't care as much about his looks, it appeared that they all thought highly of him… except _her_. If that didn't bruise his ego he didn't know what would.

XXX

Time crept by and it was already the end period. He had a free block so he thought he'd read one of his books that he'd recently found in the Restricted Section. After he grabbed the book named Magicke Moste Evile, he trotted down the path to the willow tree near the lake. The sun warmed his back and his footsteps faltered, there was already someone sitting by his tree.

She looked serenely beautiful, the wind slightly teasing her hair as she read her book calmly. Stopping next to her he cleared his throat. "Sounds like you should really get that checked out. Could have a cold," she smirked up at him with defiance in her eyes.

Staring down at her he growled, "I believe that you are sitting in my spot."

"Sorry, I was here first. You can sit next to me though, I'm not hogging it," he knew she said that just to make him mad, and it did. It boiled his blood, he'll have to teach her some manners.

"Get out of my spot Bellevue," he snarled at her though she just smiled sickeningly sweet like.

"What's the magic word?" Her laughter trailed after him when he stomped away. "Bye Riddle, it was nice talking to you."

XXX

Riddle walked around the castle, nothing exactly in mind. Nothing except her. Just as if thinking about her had called her she appeared. Bellevue went down the trail to the lake, Riddle followed after her, he didn't know why he did.

When he got down there she was already in the water floating around. Her eyes shot open when his shadow covered her. "Bellevue, how nice to see you again," he said sweetly, with a grin that could scare a lion. "Having a swell swim?"

She rolled her eyes and laughed before answering, "Don't play coy with me Riddle. I know what you're up to, if you're going to give me a detention just do it already. Stop skipping around the point and just hand it to me straight up on a platter." Bellevue confounded him with her starkness, not many would confront him or even talk to him like this. It was almost refreshing, her being so blunt that is.

His eyes narrowed at her but widened once she stepped out of the cover of the water to reveal many disturbing scars that were only half-healed. Yelping Bellevue covered herself again, but he yanked her out by her arm. "Very well. I see you're going to be one of those transfers, the ones who believe nothing can touch them, that they're on top of the world," he said darkly into her ear. Then stepped even closer with anger imbedded into his words. "I'm telling you now Bellevue. This is my school and if you don't stop your little tough charade I'm going to break you nice and slow. Just so everyone sees all those faults you hide underneath, all those little deceptions, the _lies_." She shivered and he smirked, he liked being the cause of her uncertainty. Then she shoved away from him with startling amount of strength, she certainly wasn't as frail as she looked.

"People like you disgust me Riddle. You think that just because you have things to hide that everyone else does. Well, we'll have to just see who breaks who here. I'm sure people will like to know all about what you do during the night or when your doing your 'head' duties that we all know is pure bogus. It's so easy to see through your mask Riddle, your pathetic and I will not be broken by someone that's already more broken then I'll ever be. So you can take your threats and shove them up your-" he ended her rant with another growl, gripping her arm harder.

"Leave me alone Riddle and I'll leave you alone!" She said while holding her arm delicately. For all her strength she still was weaker than him, he'd have to watch his strength around her. The truth was, he didn't want to leave her alone. So he gripped her arm again, but looser so he wouldn't hurt her. Still she yanked away and started towards the castle.

Bellevue wasn't going to get away that easily, he sprinted after her and caught up shortly. Catching her around the waist he stopped her in her tracks, "Let go of me Riddle! RIDDLE!" She wiggled a lot so he twirled her around and set her on the floor before holding her two arms down with his one.

Dumbfound he brushed gently across each of the words. _Muggle-born. Filth. Dirty blood. _The harshness of it all perplexed him. Who would do such a thing? She trembled as he traced them down her arm. Lifting up her bathing suit on the stomach area he wondered how far these scars covered her. A strange feeling astounded him, he felt sorry for her? Disgusted he jumped up without a word to her and left her there.

XXX

Over and over those words went through his head as the clock ticked away, who had done that? If he ever found out who… he stopped himself mentally from finishing that sentence. He should not think about this girl so much, he had other plans to finish.

Riddle had already told the other Prefects that the meeting was tomorrow, but he didn't think Bellevue knew. In the end he chose to wait for her and it was well after curfew by the time she came back. "Aren't you a bit late?" She smiled bashfully at him but answered with just as much vigor.

"Do you have anything better to do than torture me with your presence?" Bellevue tried to brush past him but he grasped her arm, halting her progress.

"There are plenty of things I need to take care of. Yet here I am waiting for you just to tell you when the Prefects meeting is, and this is all I get in thanks?" Riddle didn't know what possessed him to say that, but it just slipped out. Anger and intimidation didn't faze Bellevue so he guessed that a different way about this would be better. Maybe flattery? Bribery?

Slowly she clasped his hand and peeled of his fingers one by one. "Sorry… when is it?" A sour expression appeared, she didn't seem like the type to like admitting when she was wrong.

"Tomorrow in here after dinner." He stared at her and her at him, an awkwardness was present and he didn't know what to say. It was the only time in his life when he was speechless. This woman seemed to know how to make him do things he hadn't done before or feel things he didn't know.

"Is there anything else… _Riddle_?" Abruptly her eyes widened and rolled back into her head, and fell to the floor just like before. This time she didn't screech or say anything just some shaking and tightened fists. If he didn't know any better he'd have thought she had seizures, but somehow knew that wasn't the reason.

Riddle shuffled closer and bent down to look into her white orbs. Hermione's eyes rolled back suddenly and she sat up so quickly her head hit his. He flew back a few feet and clutched his forehead, "what the hell was that?"

"I… I… don't know…" With that she shot up and raced to her room, shutting the door behind her. He thumped on the door, "Your digging yourself a hole Bellevue!" Eventually he stopped and went to his room, his last thoughts were of golden eyes and white scars across smooth tan skin.

XXX

The next morning he went to the Great Hall to grab some toast before first period only to find Bellevue walking to the Slytherin table with a Gryffindor named Jason Thaddeus Potter behind her. What was she up to now? All his fellow Slytherin's didn't take to kindly to it and stared them down. Though, none of them cared to notice it.

He went to Potions a little later, leaving before Hermione had. Slughorn greeted him and he smiled at the annoying Professor before grabbing his seat. When Bellevue walked in she sat with her friends and looked around to find him looking straight at her. For a second she paused but gathered herself and began writing notes.

XXX DADA XXX

"Today, I'm assigning your partners. I stayed up half the night to decide, so you better be happy with what you get." Professor Grynz strutted around the room, girls sighing here and there. With that he started listing people in twos and directed them to the side of the room. Malfoy was paired with Matrix Avery and Avery gulped. Malfoy always did have a mean streak in him when it came to dueling, except with Riddle of course.

Demetri Rosier was called with Brenda Lese and they stood to the side, making way for the next two names called; Claire Greengrass and Phillip Mulciber. The rest of his followers were named off until it was just him. Riddle sat straighter when Bellevue's name was called. "Hermione Bellevue and…" Who matched her dueling prowess?

When his name was said he was a bit flabbergasted, she was smart, gorgeous, and must duel well to be paired with him. Who was this girl? "But sir-," the teacher cut her off with a frown.

"There will be no changes in dueling partners for you two, I'm sorry. Even if I needed to change your partners I can't, I looked through all the names and not one other person matched your two power levels. I've never seen any two students so adept at dueling as you two in all my years. It's like your born for fighting." Hermione snorted and Riddle smirked.

"Thank you Professor Grynz, but I must press on you my extreme distaste for my to be partner. If there is not another person here I can duel with, please, let me not participate in the dueling sessions." Her forehead creased as she pouted.

"I'm sorry Bellevue, but the Headmaster has required that _all _students are to have dueling practice. There's nothing I can do." Riddle's smirk increased as her agitation became obvious when she walked to his side.

"Shut up Riddle," she grumbled his way. The next to names listed were Haelen Ley and Cygnus Black.

"Don't want to be my partner Bellevue?" Riddle was irked when she didn't seem to listen to what he said. Bellevue looked between him and Ley before bursting out in giggles. His eyebrows pushed together in confusion, and looked at her with suspicion.

Professor Grynz stopped the procession and looked toward her, "something you find funny?" Shaking her head no she cleared her throat and let loose a few chuckles before calming down. After Padney Parkinson and Dariella Goyle's names were said she let out some more chuckles but was silenced by Riddle's bemused glance.

"Everyone to the side of the room please." With a wave the tables shortened into two seat tables. "You and your partner will sit in your assigned seats everyday, I will not tolerate any switching of seats. A detention will be given if I find any of that." This teacher was all bark and no bite, he was new and just wanted to establish his authority. It was rather annoying, him threatening them all the time.

Once seated he wrote on a sheet of paper, 'You can't run forever, Bellevue'. It wasn't long before she slid the paper back. 'You can't hide forever, Riddle.' That made him smirk.

'I will find out what you're hiding, it's only a matter of time. You would have already been dealt with if not for my disliking of wasting such raw talent. Join me, and you will have whatever you desire.' He had thought yesterday that she might consider bribery or flattery but even when he wrote it he was almost certain she'd reject his offer of power. Still was worth a try, he could only imagine what they would be capable of if she joined him.

'If you were actually any closer to finding out what I'm supposedly hiding then you would have not bothered asking me. I'll clue you in on a secret Riddle, and I know that you have no trouble keeping secrets.'

It was a rather quick reply, he could even hear the anger in her voice, though it was on paper. 'It will be our little secret. I promise.' He smirked at her as he pushed it to her side of the desk.

'What I desire is to walk in my home and feel that I'm not alone anymore. I want to laugh without a care in the world and be able to smile without fearing someone can see through my façade. The things I want are things you can't possibly give me Riddle, because you can't see people for anything other than a way to get what you want. Don't think I'm one of your followers and will gladly throw away my humanity for power and wealth. The power of love is all I need.'

There it was again, her boldness that irked him so. Tapping into his core magic was like taking a taste of a sweet candy, it filled him with a feeling he hardly felt. It was so easy to incinerate the piece of paper they were sharing. Reluctant to let go of the sensation of his magic he frowned, but still drew away from it slowly. If Dumbledore were anywhere near here at the time he could have felt that someone was using core magic.

For the rest of the class he refused to even take a peek at her, it was harder than he thought it would be, but still did it. "Ding!" He rose from his chair slowly, then turned from Bellevue and strode out the door.

XXX

Lunch was next so he arrived at the Great Hall a few minutes later. Malfoy and the rest of them were right behind him as he sat down at the far side of the table. They gathered themselves around him and took their seats.

Hermione entered the hall not long after with her friends, as usual, and sat at the other end. Riddle glanced at her once before ignoring her, or at least trying to. His thoughts would always wander back to her and he would end up looking her way, but she didn't look his way. It made him angry that she seemed to be able to forget about him as she chatted away with her friends. That's exactly what she did for most of the day.

XXX Ancient Runes XXX

Drumming his fingers on the hard table he waited as people filed in, the bell rang and the teacher started talking. Suddenly the door opened to reveal a flustered Bellevue, she blushed as she walked in. Then paled when she realized she'd have to sit next to him. He glared at her then ignored her like she did to him. Both of them sat there with heads held high and arms crossed, it was quite a sight indeed.

Malfoy, Avery, Nott, and the rest of them smirked and whispered among themselves, he glared them down too. Each of them looked away before connecting eye contact with him. Padney and Haelen were staring at Hermione with obvious distaste. He left as soon as he was able and stalked down the hallways, people cleared a path. Nobody liked getting in his path when he was in a bad mood. Which was almost always.

When he arrived at the Dorm he slammed his door behind him and put the finishing touch on the things he needed for the Prefect meeting. As he finished the schedule he noticed that it was about time. He had a question to ask of Professor Slughorn.

XXX

He entered the Head Dorm to find Bellevue reading some sort of tome. It was a huge book, larger than she, and she pushed it into her bag as soon as she noticed him standing in the doorway. Riddle spent the rest of the time reading up on horcruxes when he went past her to his room, it wouldn't be that long before he'd make another one. He chose not to go to dinner and just kept reading and sooner than later the Prefect meeting came around.

He sat beside Bellevue as the other Prefects sat down on the sofa's across from the two of them. "I have made a chart of who, when, and where people will be patrolling the corridors. Your partners will not be switched during that month, but they do vary from month to month. If you're not happy with the person, deal with it." As soon as he started speaking Bellevue frowned, he knew she'd be upset but didn't care.

After a few moments about speaking of the schedule among other things he brought up another thing they needed to discuss, "the teachers have been speaking about having a ball for this upcoming Halloween. Raise your hand if you concur with this idea." Most of them agreed so he set to making teams and set each of them a part to do. The time flew by and she didn't say a word, seeing as she didn't know anything. When they all left Bellevue faced him flushed with anger.

"So, when were you going to tell me you went ahead and did the schedule without consulting me? I'm Head Girl too if you haven't noticed! The whole point of it is to help each other do these duties, not you just do them behind my back!"

"Well, you looked a little busy fraternizing with your friends. I reckoned that you didn't have time to do any of it," Riddle replied coolly.

"Fine," she said through clenched teeth. "Next time, talk to me before you reckon anything!" She inhaled and exhaled slowly to calm herself before speaking again, "in Ancient Runes you dropped this and I thought you'd like it back." After handing the quill to him she went to leave only to be halted by his hand on her arm.

"My thanks, Bellevue," it slipped out before he could stop himself. Why should he thank her? Hermione sauntered into her room on the left and Riddle stared after where she had disappeared. If there was ever a riddle for him he couldn't solve, it would be her.


	9. French Friend

_**A/U: **__hey guys, sorry it took so long. I've just been debating on the next few chapters and how I want them to progress. _

_At least __**5**__ reviews please! And thank you for all your support, I really enjoy hearing that people like my story._

**Chapter Nine: French Friend**

_**XXX September 4, 1994 XXX**_

_Rain pelted him as he regained consciousness; the streets of London were cold and unforgiving. Gellert felt his forehead and sat up, only to groan with the movement. When he pulled his hand away, he found that he was bleeding from the scalp area of his head. _

_Emptying out his pockets, he searched diligently for his wand, only to find it a few feet away from where he woke. With a flick, he healed his head and looked around suspiciously. All he remembered was a green flashing light, almost the same color as the Avada Kedavra curse. _

_After glancing around he also found the hourglass he had picked up earlier, he concluded that it was this object that must have brought him here. But for what purpose, and where exactly is _here_? He had already deduced it was somewhere in England, it was obvious by the gloomy streets and constant rain. _

_Trudging out of the alleyway, he found a mass amount of people walking around, though it was pouring so hard he could barely see. People must have gotten used to the rain, seeing as they got it most of the year. Gellert Grindelwald didn't bother with asking other people where he was, though he could charm anyone; muggles were just bothersome to deal with. It would only end badly, he smirked._

_He passed a stand, stopped, then turned back to look at what had caught his attention. The evening paper stated _**September 4th****, 1994**, _he was unable to keep his mouth from dropping open. It had to be impossible… he was in the _future_. It all came back to him, the hourglass spinning as he put it around his neck, thinking it harmless, only to be transported into the far future. _

_As he gripped the newspaper in his hands he was suddenly screaming and screaming. The pain was so abrupt he had no time to prepare for what came so suddenly afterward. _

_**Dumbledore faced off with Grindelwald with a flash of magic. They fought with grace and passion, power flowed through the air with each stroke of their wands. **_

_**Though, it was over before it began, Grindelwald was struck down with a mighty blow to the chest. He could feel as his lungs were crushed and his blood trickled from his mouth. Breathing in one last time… there was no exhale, only a bloody gurgle. **_

_With as much abruptness as before he was silenced, only to hear his echoing screams down the streets. Gellert was grateful that the horrid vision was over, or whatever it was. His happiness was ended soon as he was pulled into the strings of time once again. _

_XXX An hour or so later XXX_

_Grindelwald woke once again to the rain splashing on his bloody head. When he was having those 'nightmares' he must have struggled and hit his head on the pavement. Picking up his wand he cast another Episkey, then grasped the newspaper with his shaky hand. _

_In one day, his whole life had changed. He had seen throughout his entire life with just flashes here and there, and he had felt how he'd died. The experience was not one he wanted to go through again. _

_Grindelwald wasn't going to die by the hand of Dumbledore if he had a say to it, in fact he was going to be the greatest wizard known, instead of that Tom Riddle. Yes, he had even seen Voldemort, though he did not know why he was shown it. With the name Voldemort an idea so brilliant, so despicable, was born, and so Gellert began the plotting the downfall of Tom Riddle and Dumbledore. _

_**The only thing he didn't plan for was her…**_

XXX September 6, 1994 (Saturday) XXX

"RISE AND SHINE!" Hermione woke with a start only to realize there was a face in front of her. She shot into the air with a screech, only to see that it was Faran and Daendra. Twix went off in a fast talking rant that she couldn't understand while Daendra rolled her eyes and sat on the bed next to her.

Hermione wiped the sleep out of her eyes while mumbling, "calm down Twix. I cant understand a word you're saying. How can you be so happy at…" she looked to the clock that read 9 am, "9 o'clock in the bloody morning? Honestly your last name should have been Twitch." Faran was about to comment but Daendra held up her hand to stop her from continuing on her fast paced rant.

"What she said in all that mumbo jumbo was that we wanted you to go to Hogsmeade with us today. Eileen and her new friend Aldwen are in the Library sticking their noses in god knows how many books. Are you up to it grumpy?" Her pearly white teeth flashed as she sent Hermione a winner smile. Daendra was out of her school uniform for the first time, as was Faran.

Lestrange had on a purple long sleeved blouse with a flowing black skirt, her hair was, as usual, wavy and luscious. No makeup covered her face, Deandra was a sort of natural girl, who didn't care whether guys looked at her or not. Though, funnily enough, she was the one chasing guys the most out of any of them.

Twix also had a flowing skirt on that was more colorful than Daendra would ever consider wearing. Her blouse was plain white, that helped bring out her tan complexion. Light makeup colored her face, while her green eyes seemed to pop out with the black eyeliner she wore.

Hermione finally replied, "uh, sure. How'd you guys get in here?" Draco popped up from under her covers and yipped at the two girls. They giggled and surrounded him, covering him with kisses and soothing pats.

"Where'd you get this little tyke? He's so cute!" Faran giggled while scratching Draco's ears, he was basking in the attention.

Hermione frowned, "I found him in an alley, now how about that question?" It was irritating when they just continued ignoring her for the dog, so she jokingly ripped him out of their hands and warned them they'd never see him again if they didn't answer.

"Oh don't be such a spoil sport Mione." She froze at the sound of her old nick name. Never again did she want to hear that word.

"What'd you say?"

"I said don't be such a-," Daendra was cut off when Hermione waved it away.

"No, not that." There was a dark look on Hermione's face that made Lestrange hesitate. Even though Daendra has known her for only a bit she'd felt that she'd come to know the strange girl called Hermione Bellevue. So when she saw that look it was another thing that Daendra realized she didn't understand about her friend. How one minute she'd be content and happy, the next she'd be on the verge of tears or just plain scary.

"Mione, you called me that?"

"Uh, yeah? Is that wrong or something?"

"Don't ever call me that again." Silence continued after that, until it was broken by a meek sounding Faran, which was next to unheard of.

"Perrin gave us the password. He's a Prefect so we knew that he had the password to the Head Dorm's door." Hermione looked up from her hands, she felt a little ashamed to have yelled at her friends.

"I'm sorry guys," it was said in almost a whisper. "My old friends where I used to live called me that and I… well let's just say they didn't come with me." Faran and Daendra looked at each other and then suddenly jumped across the bed and hugged Hermione.

"It's alright Hermione. We wont call you that again, and I'm sorry about your friends," Daendra whispered into her hair as she grasped her strongly. To her, it was obvious what Hermione had meant, but it just dawned on Faran what Hermione had implied. They didn't say anything after that but held her in their arms.

With that Hermione started crying uncontrollably, her mask was broken, at least to her friends. They held her until a while later when she brushed away her tears and gave them a wan smile. "Thanks guys. I needed that, I was a little pent up. Let's go to Hogsmeade I'm so tired of crying."

XXX

The three of them walked the streets of Hogsmeade. It was already getting dark as they meandered through the crowds. They had already visited most of the shops there and were just wandering around for the fun of it. Faran had bought out most of the candy shops there and was pouncing around like a little kid with ADHD.

Daendra rolled her eyes towards Faran and Hermione couldn't help chuckling at her friend. Suddenly, Faran stopped and Hermione almost smashed into her, but agilely twisted out of the way. "What the hell are you… ohhhh," Daendra looked to where her friends gaze was at the moment, only to find Jason Potter on the other side of the plaza area.

Hermione laughed, "go on Twix. We're not stopping you." Faran looked at each of them before smiling shyly.

"He probably doesn't like me anyways. Let's just go," she turned to leave but was stopped by Bellevue and Lestrange. Frowning she pouted towards her friends, friends were so embarrassing sometimes.

"No no no, you are definitely going over there and talking to that cute boy that is so plainly observing you. Don't make me accompany you over there Twix!" Daendra said it so haughtily that Faran blinked a few times, flabbergasted, then strutted over to Potter glancing back at her friends with an odd look.

Hermione giggled at the pose Lestrange was still in, then observed how Jason blushed at whatever Faran said. As usual her bubbly self came out after a few minutes and her and Potter walked off down the street, her arm in his. They seemed like a good couple, and Daendra smiled at her handiwork.

Daendra and Hermione went into a store, for her friend to check out a few things. Hermione stopped and stared out the window in thought as her friend occupied herself. It had been already a week since she'd arrived in the past, six days since she'd met the real Tom Riddle, and five days since she met her friends in DADA class.

Since Tuesday night, after the Prefect Meeting was held, she hadn't seen hide nor hair of Riddle. He seemed to be avoiding her for some odd reason. She felt like she was the one who needed to be avoiding him, not the other way around. The only time she'd spoken to him was in Charms and DADA class when they were assigned to sit and work together.

Then spontaneously, as if thoughts made him pop out of nowhere, she spotted Riddle glancing around suspiciously then he went down a dark alley. Hermione frowned, then looked to Daendra and gave some half-assed excuse, not really thinking about it. And without another thought, tailed him all the way back to Hogwarts and to the beginning of the Forbidden Forest. At certain locations in the Forbidden Forest he'd cast spells or go over his tracks to make sure no one followed him. Yet, through all those traps and tricks Hermione snuck after him diligently.

Riddle disappeared into a tunnel with vines that covered the entrance way cleverly. She, of course, followed after him. Not far from the exit was a clearing with a group of people dressed in complete black that acknowledge Riddle fervently when he strutted out into the open field.

Moonlight glittered across their faces and Hermione recognized a couple of them; Haelen Ley, Abraxas Malfoy from a while ago, Padney Parkinson, and Matrix Avery whom Malfoy had a fit with. There were a few others though, that she couldn't place. She memorized their facial features to recognize them later.

Hermione cast an illusion charm, they would only see a tree where she now hid. Unless they'd already cast the reverse spell for it beforehand, which she seriously doubted seeing as it was a very advanced spell that required total control by the user.

Riddle looked dashing in the nighttime glow, his eyes that were now midnight blue, almost black, flashed across from face to face. "Ley, step forward." Hermione could smell the fear radiating off the girl, her arm was still in a sling and bandages but that made Riddle no more merciful. "_Crucio_," he snarled and she screamed over his voice, blurring it out.

It was a long time before he let her go from the spell. Hermione knew how it felt at the other end of that wand, her scars ached with the thought of it. She couldn't help shivering, it was not all from the cool night breeze.

Riddle continued with this process until he'd accounted for everyone there. "I am so disappointed in all of you. Sneaking around behind my back with your senseless rumors." At the end he sent a random Crucio that hit an unsuspecting Avery. He spoke in a slow voice, like he was talking to children. Which she suspected that was how he thought of them.

"Here I thought you wanted to become powerful… but until you can stop your _blabbering_ mouths there will be nothing in store for you except an untimely death. Now you wouldn't want that?" Riddle said as he stroked Ley's tearstained cheek, then gripped it so hard she let out a screech. Blood trailed down her cheeks where he hurt her, it looked as though Haelen had cried blood.

"Pleaseee! Master, I didn't mean it I promise. You have to believe me it was-," Riddle hushed her by slamming her jaw shut, blood crept down her closed lips to stain her black outfit. Ley tore at his hands to let her free but he gripped her tighter. Her muffled screaming sent more trembles through Hermione's body. It was horrifying just watching.

"Shut up," was his only response, and it was said so coldly that Ley actually got the idea and didn't make a sound. She hardly dared to breathe for if it made a sound.

Riddle smiled cruelly, "on to other things now. As I said earlier, if any of you touch Bellevue I will torture you until there's nothing left to hurt, and if I have to repeat myself you know the consequences." He looked at each and every one of them before continuing. It shocked her so much to hear that, that she couldn't even comprehend what he was saying for a few minutes. Why would he not want them near her, unless he just wanted her for himself…

Riddle went on about who he wanted targeted this week among other things. It was eerie hearing about the evil things he was going to do. Hermione didn't want to hear anymore of such things so she crept away before the meeting ended and she was caught snooping.

XXX

It was a long walk back through the Forbidden Forest and she couldn't help but be suspicious of the dark shadows. After hearing Ley's screams, she couldn't help but bring up the past. Not far from the edge of Hogwart's grounds Hermione felt as if a weight was pushing on her so she clutched onto a tree nearby only to go into a haze and tumbled to the forest floor…

_A guy with yellow hair and a boyishly handsome face lay on the pavement of the cold streets as rain struck his body, slowly his eyes peaked open. The boy touched his head and felt the blood on his hand from the wound. He searched through his pockets then looked around and picked up a wand. _

_After healing himself with a wand movement he looked at the hourglass on the floor then up at the sky with confusion written clear across his face. It was plain that the boy didn't know where he was. He seemed to choose a way to go then stomped through the rain in the chosen direction. _

_The rain still fell as he entered a market area full of jostling people going everywhere. They didn't even glance at the strange looking clothes he wore or the dark gleam in his eyes. He walked past a newspaper stand then turned to face it and grasped a daily paper. _

_His eyes widened considerably as he read the text, and the date. Then his hands started shaking and his breath shortened. With a scream he dropped the paper and fell down…_

She felt as if she was moving and Hermione groaned then rubbed her forehead before she realized with shock that she was in fact _moving_. Her eyes opened to see ice blue eyes looking into her own, her mouth opened to speak something but nothing came out and she shut her mouth. Hermione glanced around to notice she was in Hogwarts now and almost to the Head Dorm.

"You can put me down now." Riddle complied and set her feet on the floor before pulling his hands from her waist. He didn't say a word when she walked into the Dorm, she could feel him smirking after her. Just as she did so the clock struck 12 o'clock and her eyes widened. The vision she had didn't seem like it had taken that long, but then again she didn't know how long she was out watching that meeting going on either.

Hermione didn't turn on the light when she walked into her room, she was already used to the dark forest and didn't want to end up blinding herself. With a sigh she peeled off her clothes and found a loose pajama shirt by feel, now only in her shirt and panties. Then she jumped on her bed only to yelp when she felt a body under her and a muffled curse. Hermione leapt off the bed and turned on the lamp in one motion.

Once again her mouth dropped, "but…what…how…**DRACO**?" There he sat with his perfectly muscled body and tousled hair. A smirk appeared on his face.

"The one and only, Granger." Hermione went up to him and slapped him across the face. He looked up at her shocked and a little cross.

"Now here I thought I'd get a welcoming kiss. Isn't that what you said earlier? Quote on quote 'It's just weird, even though he's my enemy I'd just wish for some familiar face, and I swear if I ever hear him call me mudblood again when I get back I'm gonna kiss him until I can't breathe anymore'." Hermione balked at him.

"The dog! I knew there was a resemblance, and don't you even think that you're getting a kiss from me showing up so unexpectedly. In my **bed** nonetheless. And are you naked?" She started out strong but couldn't help but squeak out that last question.

His smirk widened, "it's the only way I sleep." Draco wrapped her sheet around him like a beach towel, stood up, then started towards Hermione with a determined face. She backed up until she was against the wall and he just a few inches from her. "Why so nervous Granger? Or should I call you Bellevue now? Tsk tsk. Here I thought you were that innocent girl I met so long ago."

"You should know-," he cut her off as he squished her against the wall and kissed her. She could feel him pressed up against her, and she meant _everything_. The sheet was very thin and didn't hide anything, in the back of her mind she reminded herself to get new ones. There was no way in hell she was using them again.

When he pulled away from her, though his arms still were on the wall next to her head, she stood there frozen with disbelief. Draco **fucking** Malfoy kissed her, didn't he hate her?

He smirked when she was speechless, "I've always had a talent for rendering women-," this time it wasn't a slap it was a full out deck to the face. Malfoy jerked around but was able to stop himself from falling completely. "That brought back memories." He rubbed his jaw and chuckled, "fiesty. I always knew you were a tough one to crack Hermione."

"Ughh! You are such a pig Malfoy! How did you get here anyways?" Hermione rolled her eyes at his egotistic personality. She had to admit though, it was a mind blowing kiss. It was weird that he was the third person she'd ever kissed, and not to mention it had been a while. Not that she would ever think of telling that to him. God knows what would happen if he found out, it'd probably inflate his head so much he'd float.

"When Harry started battling Voldemort again after the Killing Curse struck the hourglass I went over to you. Yes, I saw the hourglass, I'm just surprised Potty didn't. Not very observational is he? Of course he wouldn't have to be since he'd always had you for that. _Anyways_, I made the stupid mistake of touching that hourglass and voila I was sent here with you. Though it happened for me a little differently, my soul went here and my body stayed there. That's why I was a dog when you found me, it was the closest thing to me when I arrived. I've only recently figured out that I could turn human."

While she pondered on it, Draco sat there staring at her and only then did she notice she was only in her undergarments and a sheer blouse. After smacking him again he grudgingly turned around massaging his new wound as she changed into decent pajamas.

Once finished she sat on the bed and conjured up clothes for Draco, then told him to change in her closet. He complied and came out in a white t-shirt and jeans. It wasn't much, but she couldn't think of what he would normally wear. "We need to come up with an identity and reason why you've transferred to Hogwarts. You can't just go masquerading around as a dog and sleeping in my Dorm. Riddle would eventually figure out that someone lived here, since you'd have to use the shower sometime.

"I'm sorry but you can't use your last name since, Abraxas Malfoy, your relative is in seventh year too. Although you can keep your first name if you wish it." She looked at Draco pointedly.

"Uhhh. How about Draco Delacour, I am French after all. Not to mention I speak it fluently and the Delacour's are a pureblooded family that's rich." Hermione snorted at him. She should've known he'd pick a prominent family, at least he was smart and didn't pick one they could be found out by. "I ze itz going to be fun pretending to be French," it was said in a French accent that even Hermione could believe. Hopefully Riddle wouldn't see through it, that's what she was worried about.

"Bien sûr, assurez-vous juste de ne pas faire des erreurs," she warned him. (_of course, just make sure not to make mistakes_)

"Moi, erreurs?" He chuckled, not shocked she could speak it fluently either. One wasn't the smartest witch of their time for nothing. "Now that my name's been settled what is my reason for being here?"

"You could say that your family sent you here to get away from all the trouble happening in France. After all that's the excuse I used with Dumbledore and he seemed to understand. I'll make your fake records and letter now then." Hermione began working on papers for Draco Delacour. It was rather funny that he chose a last name that derived from the French saying 'fleur de la coeur' or 'flower of the heart'.

"Very well, when should I make my first appearance? Shall we say Monday? We can send the information to Dippet tonight and say it was a rash decision among my family." Hermione nodded in agreement as she finished the last few touches on the paper. She was very happy that she read a book on such things, it helped in the oddest situations.

After sending off the documents by paper planes, very much like Dumbledore had used. "Que diriez-vous que le baiser maintenant?" With an unladylike snort she pushed Draco out of the chair and onto the floor. (_How about that kiss now?_)

"In your dreams, _Delacour_. You can sleep on the floor," with that she threw a pillow, which narrowly missed the target, and the blanket flew towards him after it.


	10. Dirty Blood

**A/U: I'm sooo sorry. I don't like giving excuses but I really have been very busy since school started. I have a job, school, homework, and then a niece to take care of every day. It leaves me hardly any time to write so please accept my dearest apologies.**

**Please at least 5 reviews.**

**Chapter Ten: Dirty Blood**

XXX Monday September 8, 1994 XXX

Hermione walked down to the Great Hall slowly, last night she had hardly any sleep since she was determined to do all the homework she surprisingly neglected. It was a first for her, but she had more important things to worry about than her education at hand.

Not to mention Draco being in her room the whole time, taunting her didn't help either. She massaged her forehead with a sigh; she wished he'd stayed a puppy. It was so much easier that way. All she'd needed for the dog was water, food, and attention. Now it was just plain complicated. Not only were her emotions askew, but she was physically and mentally drained. With another tiring sigh she entered the Great Hall, spotting her friends immediately.

Thankfully, about midday yesterday, she gave Draco some of her money that Dumbledore had graciously given her for this month, and he went to buy some supplies. Luckily though, he didn't have to have an entrance exam because she had made a fake layout containing all of his grades. That time gave her a slight reprieve from stress, during which she read the book she'd summoned not long ago. Yet she hadn't found anything of use since that one passage. It was depressing that there was only a quarter of the book left, and she felt like she hardly knew anything.

"Hey everyone." They all greeted her back with a similar saying. Everyone seemed a bit down today, maybe it was the way they held themselves this morning, or the gloomy looks on their faces, all except Perrin that is. He was always that ray of sunshine on a cloudy day, brightening everything with his genuine smiles and laughs.

"How are you this morning Bellevue?" Perrin stated while smiling down at her. His eyes sparkled from the magically lit chandeliers and candles spread throughout the room. He always greeted her with an enchanting grin that infected others as well.

Though the rest of them were resilient to his charms she couldn't help blushing at his ever attentive nature, "It would be better if I could sleep in until ten o'clock."

"Didn't have a very good night I presume?" Lestrange frowned, "neither did I. You know all that chocolate Faran got on Saturday? She ate most of it yesterday. Drove me bonkers until early this morning," Twix glanced innocently away and tried to act as if she didn't know what her friend was talking about. Though a slight pink tinted her cheeks told Hermione all she needed to know.

Hermione was cut short by Headmaster Dippet standing up when everyone was in the Great Hall for breakfast. "I'm happy to inform you all that we will be having another visitor, due to certain circumstances in France he will be allowed to finish his education here at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry," the Great Hall was in pandemonium. This year was becoming very intriguing for the student body, never before had there been _two _transfers in a whole year. Everyone forgot what they were talking about previously to think on this news.

"What the bloody hell is going on?" Perrin announced, it was the first time she'd heard him swear so it was a bit shocking. Many of her friends echoed him.

"Do you think he'll be handsome?" Daendra asked and they all stopped what they were saying to regard her with raised eyebrows, she just shrugged unashamed. "What? They said he was a he and… oh never mind." 

"Also, there is one other transfer, he was previously schooled at Durmstrang and has moved for safety purposes. Please give a warm greeting to Draco Delacour, and Gertell Dardellwing." The Great Hall's door opened to reveal a pleased looking Draco. They had planned it beforehand, and Hermione gasped on cue not having to try for she was just as shocked as everyone else. Just for a different reason. This Dardellwing resembled someone and sparked her sense of déjà vu, but she still couldn't place him. The applause may have drowned out her gasp from the many other students, but not from her friends, just like Draco and she wanted.

To give Draco a smooth enter into their friend's circle she was to act as if they were long-lost friends who met when little. That it was actually Draco's idea stunned her. The Draco she used to know wouldn't have even thought of _pretending_ to be her friend for fear of an aneurysm, now he was _suggesting_ it?

Her friends stared at her, "do you know them Hermione?" Perrin asked, though he didn't appear very happy at the moment for some reason.

"I think I know that Delacour guy, but I can't be for sure. It feels as though I've seen him somewhere." She squinted as if to get a better look at him. Draco roamed down the carpet like a prince, if he hadn't had that smug look on his face he would've looked the part. Dardellwing strutted after him; he was also handsome with high cheekbones and golden hair that was accentuated by sparkling blue eyes. Sighs of adoration came from most of all the girls, especially from the younger years.

"Well if you do. Be sure to introduce me," Daendra whistled as she checked him out. "Now those are _men_." Alphonse looked distinctly uncomfortable during this conversation, shifting several times in his seat. Hermione wondered what his problem was. Everyone seemed on edge today, there was something not quite right.

Eventually all the tumult calmed and everyone had quieted to a whisper. They waited as Delacour walked up the few stairs and sat onto the stool. Dumbledore placed the hat upon his bleach blond hair and it was not even a second before it screamed Slytherin. It appears his mind hadn't changed after all.

Next the other transfer Gertell sat down calmly and when the hat was placed upon his head it also screamed Slytherin. That was a bit surprising for Hermione who didn't take Dardellwing as the Slytherin type. Resurveying him she found that there was a glint in his eye she didn't like, her instincts screaming _run while you can_! Ignoring her gut she sat deathly still while they strode to the table.

Hermione couldn't help but be caught in the applause and cheering of her house. Delacour walked to the table after Dumbledore changed his badge color to green and silver and handed him his schedule. The Slytherin's at the table whispered how pitiful the other houses were since they didn't get any of the transfers. Already the rumors had started. Dardellwing sat at the other end of the table near Riddle's group and Hermione donned a worried expression. Already he was starting to trouble her.

Delacour came up to Hermione distinctly, their conversation already planned. "Do I know you from somewhere mademoiselle? I could not 'elp but notice you while I was walking in." Hermione blushed as he kissed her hand, not even having to try. The others made room for Delacour and he sat next to her on the bench in a relaxed manner. But Hermione could see the tension in his body; he hadn't expected another transfer either.

"I felt the same way. There must be some place we've meet before, I can feel it. Though the last time I went to France was when I was little."

"Bien sûr! I knew I recognized you. 'ermione Bellevue, I believe?" She appeared shocked, but smiled internally. It was a bit hilarious how he pronounced her name, er-me-oh-knee. Her friends were soaking this up like dried sponges on a steaming hot day.

"Yes, so we have met?"

"Indeed we have mademoiselle. I was about ten at ze time and I 'ad just got into an argument with my father at our estate in Lyon, I remember it as ze biggest fight we'd 'ad. So I ran to a small getaway I'd always enjoyed as a kid. There I found a girl already sitting in my favoreete tree," Draco's white teeth flashed, he was milking that accent a tad too much. Daendra frowned at their conversation, and Draco just caught notice of her, staring a few seconds before continuing. "I remember we became friends after you pushed me out of ze tree. Childeesh, no?" Hermione's eyes had widened with each sentence, acting her part.

"I don't know why I hadn't seen it before. If I remember correctly Draco, you said I wouldn't push you out because I was a girl." A smile appeared on her face like she was pondering over memories.

"Comme j'avais tort." (_How wrong I was_).

"Je pense que ça fonctionne. Je vais vous présenter mes amis, ne pas me gêner." Her friends looked at her shocked. (_I think its working. I'm going to introduce you to my friends, don't embarrass me._) "Guys, this is my friend from years ago. I met him in Lyon, France when I was a child as you'd heard. Draco, this is Perrin Zerxim, Faran Twix, Minerva McGonagall, Liam 'Blade', Alphonse Risin, Jason Potter, Kahlan Black, Aldwen Verticius, Daendra Lestrange, Horace Hunter and Eileen Prince."

"How enchanting to meet you all, any friend of 'ermione's is a friend of mine," Draco smiled at each of them, but when it got to Daendra she just frowned even more while grumbling something.

"How enchanting," Perrin snorted sarcastically and Hermione stared at him, blank faced. It wasn't often that he'd been so mean to someone, so there had to be an explanation for his behavior. During the whole breakfast feast, which Dippet had made especial for Draco and Gellert, Perrin kept on with this raunchy act. Hermione was a little upset when she learned that they got a feast, yet she didn't? Yet she put away that petty thought and pondered on what was up with Perrin's attitude towards Draco.

Eventually Draco got aggravated with Perrin and snarled like a wounded cat, which he was since Perrin kept insulting him with no restraint whatsoever. "Is there a problem? 'Ave I done sometheeng to offend? No? Then _shut_ your mouth." Perrin blinked at his blunt response, not talking until the bell rang when he said goodbye. Running after him Hermione pulled on his sleeve but he ignored her and kept going at a brisk walk. So, she thought, desperate times call for desperate measures.

She raced after him to catch up the space she'd lost while in thought and tackled him to the floor. With a twist Perrin turned over and Hermione sat on him just like Riddle had done to her. "Now you listen here! He's one of my friends, why are you being so disrespectful to him?" With a scolding look on her face she peered into his eyes.

"I don't like him." It was a curt response, she knew he was trying to avoid this yet he made no move to push her away.

"Perrin, there's got to be another reason for you to dislike him so much." Perrin lifted her off him surprisingly easily and set her down next to him on the floor. Students walked around them to their classes, staring openly at the two strangers on the ground in the middle of the hall.

"It doesn't matter Hermione. Let's just go to class. We're going to be late again; Professor Slughorn might have a hemorrhage." He gave her a smile that had no effort into it and it didn't completely reach his eyes.

"Bullshit." Hermione didn't always like swearing, but sometimes it was useful. "Anything that makes you act like that matters." The ding throughout the halls meant they were indeed late, but neither cared enough to notice. Perrin stared at her oddly, and then did the least thing she expected.

He kissed her. It wasn't mind blowing like Draco's, or sloppy like Viktor Krum's… it was a cool summer breeze or sunshine on a cold day. Not amazing just… nice, refreshing even. And unlike Draco, it was soft and tentative, unsure. Maybe that's why Hermione responded by kissing him back, maybe not. Only the inner workings of her mind knew the reason, but she wasn't stopping to figure it out.

When he broke the kiss, breathless, he blushed worse than she'd ever seen and looked at the ground between them. "That wasn't exactly as I planned." I know how you feel, Hermione thought. Her fourth kiss, though she's currently not regretting it one bit.

"Yeah," was her response. She was a bit confounded by him and didn't know what to think. When did he start to think of her like this? Sometimes, for being the smartest witch in her time, she was so oblivious to little things like one's friend growing infatuation. Now she knew how it felt to be Ron, with that thought she winced but got control of herself.

"Look, I know it's only been a week since you've gotten here but it has felt like an eternity. Hermione, what I'm trying to say is… would you be willing to let me court you? I know I'm not as handsome as this _Delacour_ but I care for you a lot," he had said it so fast she wasn't exactly sure of what she'd heard. When she laughed he looked dejectedly at her, big eyes wide with a wounded expression.

"Oh of course I will Perrin, though I'm not the best courtier seeing as I'm almost always busy with one thing or another. I can't promise you anything solid Perrin, but I'll try. And I was laughing because I didn't expect you to be a rambler." Hermione smiled at him as he brightened up. They chuckled together the whole way to the dungeons. When they opened the door stealthily to Potions Slughorn didn't see them as they crept in because his back was to the door.

Hermione's arm was still in Perrin's as she sat down by him and her friends ogled at her, making them both blush. Eileen Prince stared at her with an unreadable expression and Hermione immediately felt guilty, she'd forgotten about Prince's crush on Perrin. When Professor Slughorn turned to face the room he stopped, eyebrows crunching together as he looked at them both. "Were you two here the whole time?"

They looked at each other then both said, "Yeah," smiling secretly. Thank god for his seniority and lack of short term memory.

"Are you sure? I could've sworn… yes well anyways as I was saying. The Drought of the Living Dead is very potent…" 

XXX

Halfway through the day Hermione realized that Draco also had several of her classes. It was unnerving to have Riddle on one side of her then Draco on the other. Dardellwing seemed to have joined the ranks of Riddle's Death Eaters and sat next to him each time she saw them both.

The lunch bell rang and she ambled down the hallways, careful of her healing arm. These days people were less violent, but more conniving and vicious underneath their exterior façade. Not to mention the people of this time gave results, and were neither sloppy nor lazy. It was like their descendents had gained all these extra traits over time that mostly had to do with advances in technology.

The Great Hall never stopped astonishing her with it grace and delicacy. Candles were strewn throughout the 'sky' and orbs of glowing light, stars as closely as they could be recreated, that floated around to provide light where candles couldn't.

When she got to the end of the table, where her group usually sat, Hermione was disappointed to see Eileen Prince wasn't there. Hermione ate quickly and told her friends she was doing some research and left for the Library. Almost certain Eileen would be in there it was no shock when at the far back of the room she was curled into a big chair.

It took her a few moments to step out of her wonderland and back into reality to notice Hermione. Eileen still was untouched by emotion, her face frozen behind her fake smile. "Oh hey, what are you doing here Hermione?"

"There's no reason to pretend Eileen." She pulled up a chair next to her, taking her hand. "I'm sorry about Perrin. If you want me to rethink my decision on courting with him I will. Honestly I think it's not going to last anyhow, but I want you to know that I'm not trying to stab you in the back." Eileen sat there astounded. It was another minute or so before she responded.

"Hermione, I'm glad that you thought about me but it's quite alright. I just didn't realize how obvious I am. You go right ahead and court him, tell me how it is though," it was the first time Eileen had spoken that much in a while. Hermione smiled at the gesture of friendship, her saying that implied that when they were done dating she would like to know. It was shock to her that Prince actually spoke to her about her feelings at all.

"Good, cause I'd planned on being your friend for a while, if you can endure my presence." Eileen laughed; surprisingly her laugh was very loud although not obnoxious. She didn't laugh hardly enough and Hermione was gladdened by the thought that she'd made that happen.

"I was hoping the same." For the rest of lunch they discussed several things Eileen had questions on. Hermione was the perfect person to ask, seeing as she held tons of information jealously.

They had just gotten on the subject of dueling when Eileen asked her to help her, rather bashfully too. "Why, I didn't know that you couldn't duel. You seem fairly proficient in all the other classes, why didn't you tell me before?"

"It's exactly that reason actually; I'm ashamed that I can't duel very well. So I'd hoped I might get better by myself, but there's no luck for me." Eileen looked a bit down so Hermione formed a thought in her head. A smile appeared on her face as the thought turned into a full blown idea.

"I would love to help you. If there's anyone you know that needs help, tell me. Let's do it after dinner then?" Eileen smiled shyly and nodded.

XXX

Eileen sat next to Hermione, the seat next to her surprisingly open. Usually the seats next to her went quickly, seeing as they all adored Hermione. Perrin lounged on the other side, left arm around her as he ate with his right. All of her friends were currently teasing Hermione about dating Perrin, but when Eileen sat Hermione changed the subject.

"Hermione, I've done as you asked. So far there are ten people that want to join." Eileen looked at Hermione's shocked face, she hadn't expected so many the first day.

"That's a lot of people. I hope you told only the people you trusted," Eileen nodded at her. Hermione should have already guessed Eileen would take precautions; after all she isn't an unintelligent girl.

"What are you guys plotting over there? And why am I not in the middle of it?" Daendra looked at them with a fake frown on her face. It made Hermione laugh and the rest of them joined in. They all knew how Lestrange liked pranks, especially on the teachers.

Eileen looked to Hermione to explain, "Well if any of you are interested I'm teaching a bit for some of my friends that are having problems. Even if you're not coming to the meetings, it would be appreciated that you don't tell anyone, I don't want it getting out and about the school and to those that I don't know and trust." Draco looked sharply at her; he knew what she was doing.

He smiled at where she was going with this, "you already know my answer 'ermione." She smirked at him and looked towards the rest of them who seemed to be thinking on the offer.

"Why not? We could only improve," Faran stated and the rest of them agreed. "Where do we meet?" They looked at her eagerly.

"I'll show you, we're to go in smaller groups so as not to attract attention from the other students. Eileen and I talked earlier so some of you will follow her to the Room of Requirements. Does anyone else know where that's located?" A few shook their heads no and others yes. She split them up into groups where each wouldn't have to go too far to meet up with one another and each group had someone who knew where it was.

"The ones of you who know where it is, just think, 'I need a place where I can learn in secret'. Meet there in a half an hour. That should give you plenty of time to change." Hermione left the Great Hall in Perrin's arms and they walked all the way to her Head Dorm.

He hugged her and was about to leave but she pulled him back by his hand to give him a light kiss. Zerxim got a dreamy look and smiled down at her goofily, "A man could get used to this."

"I'll see you in twenty." With a laugh and wink she walked inside and found Riddle sitting in one of the chairs.

He had a dark look on his face and Hermione tried to slip past him. "Perrin Zerxim? I would have never thought. Isn't he a bit weak for you to court him? Not to mention his dirty blood," his words dripped with hate and disgust.

Hermione hadn't known that Perrin was a half-blood, but it's not like she would have cared anyways. "Is it honestly any of your business about my personal life? Should it matter to you whom I court and with whom I don't?" How could he sit there and mock her for who she dated when he had no part in her life, also who was he to laugh at a half-blood when he himself was one? Although, she thought, not many knew he was half-blood. In fact he didn't even believe he was half-blood if she remembered correctly.

"I believe that everyone's lives are my business. Especially if one of them is a threat to something I own." His now midnight blue eyes bored into her and she lost her train of thought for a moment. Hermione wondered if he talked so openly with anyone else. It almost made her laugh thinking that she was actually his closest thing to a friend even when they were enemies.

"Maybe if you didn't threaten other people then you wouldn't have to watch your back. It's not my fault for the life you lead, nor is it my responsibility. So take your half-assed comments to someone who cares." She snapped before continuing on with her rant.

"Weakness does not matter to me; I'm strong enough for the both of us. Perrin is a wonderful guy, so why should it be a problem about his blood? And you know what _Riddle_ if you hate half-bloods so much then I'm pleased to inform you, I'm **muggle born**!" With that she stomped around him to her room, not even waiting for the shock to settle in.

When Hermione came out again he wasn't in the room. She frowned at the sudden feeling of being alone; one thing she could relate on with Riddle is that she was alone even though she was surrounded by people. She may be popular here but it didn't give her any sense of comfort. Sure she had plenty of friends, but they couldn't fill the void that was carved out of her heart when she was sent here away from her home.

Disregarding her unhappiness she put on a smile and walked to the Room of Requirements. Perrin met up with her on the way and slipped his arm around her after giving her a kiss on the cheek while blushing. It was a bit strange how he was so self-confident in other situations but with girls he was horribly shy.

It was still five minutes until everyone would arrive and Hermione constructed the room with her thoughts. They sat together on a couch that was terribly comfy; Hermione had to try to stop the yawns that fought their way up her throat. Eileen's group was the first one's there and others followed closely behind as planned.


	11. Reality

A/U: SORRRY! Had a major writer's block, not to mention I went on vacation and didn't have a computer around me. Hope you'll forgive my absence. Honestly though, I was kind of depressed about how some people took to the story. I know I'm not the perfect writer but I still hope for the best. I also know that Riddle has a British accent, obviously, but you have to realize I'm AMERICAN. Lol. Just had the put that out there. I may notice things that will be obvious to you Europeans out there (not dissing just sayin')

**Chapter 11: Reality**

When the last group filed through the door Hermione stood in front of them all. The Room of Requirements had blue mats covering every inch of the floor and half the walls also, for precautions. One could never be too safe with dueling, especially the things she'd be teaching them; though they didn't know that yet.

She summoned a sheet of paper that she'd made especial for this reason. "Everyone that's serious about this and wants to join will have to give their signature. Once you sign this paper there's no turning back. If someone signs and snitches on us, or even brings up the topic to anyone who's not yet in our group or approved by me will have a nasty surprise," she smirked evilly at everyone.

All shivered in response. "Betray me and it will be the last thing you ever do." They nodded and looked at her determined.

"Why so serious about this? You're just teaching us right?" It was said from one of the people Eileen had brought with her. She turned her razor sharp gaze on them for a few seconds before responding.

"Is magic a jest to you? If you take your life seriously then you should take magic seriously. I don't know about you but magic is my life. To be in this group you will abide by my rules. These things are not to be taken lightly, if you practice what I taught you outside of the sessions it could go horribly. There are things that I have seen that you couldn't even imagine in your worst nightmares, and I will be teaching you defenses against them. You can't just go shooting these spells out at anyone; someone would ask where you learned it and it could turn terribly wrong. I will not be held responsible for foolishness. That's why I'm taking precautions." The girl almost swallowed her own tongue; her cheeks were pale and strained. Hermione smiled to lessen the lashing she just gave, but she must do it now or people will not understand. She still expected someone to test her limits, and she'd be ready for that someone.

"Also these coins I'm giving you will look like normal galleons but in truth they are what we will do to get a hold of one another in dire circumstances. Or whenever I need a meeting called they will heat up and show you the message that I think." They all nodded in wonder, she was a bit proud of that feat. Hermione herself had made them up when she was involved in Dumbledore's Army, otherwise known as D.A.

"Any questions?"

"Is this going to be an every week meeting or every month?" Daendra looked straight at her when she asked it. A sparkle in her eyes showed she was interested; she was the type of girl that wanted to kick butt though it was rare for this day and age.

"Every Saturday, unless you have something extremely important I stress this, not only for yourself but for others. There are many things that we can learn from each other that I could not teach," Hermione looked at each and every one of them in the eyes to get the point across. She wanted them to know that there were some things that weren't taught, they were just learned.

"What are we going to be learning that the professors can't teach us?" Hermione glanced to find piercing gray eyes not unlike Daendra's, but she believe the owner to be Cygnus Black. It was a very good question but with a simple answer.

"Do you think that every professor teaches you everything you need to know? Or do they do it because it's required of them? There are some things that teachers would not like you to know because some of you may be more knowledgeable than them or for their own personal reasons. Though I'm not saying that every teacher is that way, such as Dumbledore; many people think, wow, they're teaching me a lot. But stop and think… what aren't they teaching you?" She left it with a question to get them thinking. By the end of this lesson most people here will believe that they'd thought this all their lives. A little thing called inception.

Minerva stared at her before asking, "Is there a personal reason why you're doing this? I mean I understand that magic is important to you but I don't get why you'd take your time to teach us." She smirked towards McGonagall, very perceptive of her. Just a thing she'd expect from the next Transfiguration professor.

"It is best to learn by teaching is it not? I can't see a better way to spend my time than with you lovely people," Hermione laughed. "Who can say what I will learn? I openly admit that I can learn a lot from you, and you from me. And if there is someone more proficient in a certain study than me and at teaching it then they are welcome to take my place in teaching that meeting. I know for a fact that you are better at Transfiguration than me, I will not deny that I have faults."

When no one asked any other questions for a few more minutes she looked at the clock. It was later than she'd expected. Hermione smiled, she always did get a bit carried away.

"If there are no more questions than if you would like to join please come one by one to sign." Slowly people trickled over and signed the paper. There were only two people who did not move from their seats, a girl and a boy. Both she believe from Slytherin. Good thing she thought about this problem beforehand.

Hermione inquired to them, "do you not want to join?"

They looked towards each other with stubbornness clearly written all over their face, "We will not. This is all rubbish. All you want is for people to be under you, to follow you and we will not."

"Very well, I will ask you to leave the way you came if you please. And be quick about it. Don't let the door hit your arse on the way out." bursts of laughter followed them out the door.

Perrin looked towards her, "Hermione what if they snitch? They didn't sign the paper so they could flap their mouths to anyone. Even though they're the more trustworthy kind of Slytherin, no offense, they will still crawl back to Riddle. And if anyone can, he'll ferret the truth out of them." There it was, the truth was out and it went silent. They all didn't want to admit it but he was correct.

Hermione just smirked. "Good thinking, but I'm way ahead of you. If people walked out of that door first without me deactivating the spell beforehand their minds would be let's say, _alleviated_, from these certain memories. They would walk out of these doors to be transferred to different spots on the Hogwarts ground thinking they went out for a long walk and got lost."

"Brilliant!" Al said and was echoed.

Twix stared at her smiling, "you are meant to be a Slytherin after all Hermione. I didn't think you had it in you. But I guess I we were wrong." The rest of her friends nodded and grinned. It was a good thing she also made an improvement to the spell, where if by any chance someone would look into their minds with legilimancy they would find fake memories. No one knows who could be watching, but she had a feeling he was.

XXX

"Very good all of you now take a five minute break." They all conjured up chairs or just sat on the floor from magical exhaustion. Magic didn't just drain you magically it took away strength after using spells or enchantments for a long period of time. That's why she's teaching them the importance of stamina. When you're in a war there's no time to stop for a breather.

Eileen came up to her with a weary grin on her face, "you should be a teacher. You're a natural at this."

"Yeah, that was my dream once…" Hermione trailed off staring into nothing, a blank expression on her face. She tried not to let the memories get to her but sometimes they popped up at random intervals surprising her.

"Why isn't it anymore? What have you got to lose, I mean there's your whole life ahead of you." Prince seemed perplexed that she wouldn't want to do that anymore. Hermione seemed the kind to take the whole world in her hands and mold it to her liking.

With a sigh she explained, "Sometimes life doesn't go as expected. Once I thought there was nothing that could stand in my way, and then reality hit me… literally. Now all I want to do is relax, but I can't because I have a job to do and until I'm done I can't let my guard down or else he will systematically kill my world all over again."

"What do you mean _he_? Is that the person who… uh… killed your family?" Hermione hadn't noticed she let that slip until it was already said; she cursed to herself. Her face closed down and Eileen looked guiltily away.

"I don't want to talk about it," then to everyone, "Alright enough rest for you lot. We're going to play a game." There was cheering until they saw the smirk on her face and it slowly died down. "It is not your normal game, this is called War. My old friends and I made it up." She tried not to let them see her sadness but just continued, thinking how great this will prepare them. "Obviously the survivor will win. For now it's sort of a free for all, eventually I will get you into teams to see how your cooperation and communication skills are. There will be no hurtful spells, curses or hexes involved. If you use one you're disqualified and I will decide when you're ready to go back in. Only stunning spells or the like will be okay. Once your wand is out of your hand or you are stopped in some way you are 'killed'. Okay? Everyone go to that side of the room while I put up some obstacles for you guys."

When they were situated on the other side by the door she flicked her wrist revealing her wand. With many flurries of her hand boulders, trees, and all sorts of things popped up. Then some hills and other sorts of land they would have to go over. She couldn't form the Room of Requirements to fit her thoughts now because she was already in it but she could use conjuration. After Hermione put her wand away the whole thing was a jungle wonderland full of surprises.

"That was bloody brilliant!" A sixth year Gryffindor by the name of Jack Wood said when she was done. Smiling from all the praise she turned to them. She walked up to a little platform she created that stood above the whole jungle to observe them as they fought.

"I would suggest spreading out. I'll give you one minute to find a place suitable; you'll hear a ring to begin hiding, one to start War, and one to tell whoever is last they won." Looking at her expectantly they ran in opposite directions after the bell. Draco stayed an extra second to give her a look, her eyebrow shot up in response. He could only speculate at her now, not knowing exactly what she had in mind training this little army but he had a general sense.

XXX Faran Twix's POV XXX

Running after Perrin into the forest she glanced behind her to see Eileen and a boy she believed to be Broc Risin, or Al's younger brother. He had Al's same brown eyes but had dark blond hair cut the same way, though they shared the mischievous smile that made them quite dashing.

After some time she couldn't see Perrin anymore so Faran ran to the left behind a boulder surrounded by trees that only had one entrance; deciding it was a good place to defend she crouched there waiting for the bell to ring. It wasn't a long wait before the sound rushed through the Room of Requirements and even a shorter time before someone stumbled through the little hideout she had. With no hesitation Twix sent an Expelliarmus charm their way and disarmed them. Right as she charmed the girl with red hair a flash went to the sky that lighted the whole place with white light and her picture shown from above.

Hermione's voice was heard from above also, "first contestant is out, I will transport you to a safe area near the door, don't move." With a swish the girl was gone; Faran couldn't tell if it was Franchesca or Garwina Weasley. After that encounter Faran figured it would be best to move out since that white light would have her competitors crawling over here in seconds.

XXX Cygnus Black's POV XXX

He was a few feet away from where the white light came from when he saw Faran shoot from the bushes running. Cygnus had time to shoot a spell but he didn't have it in him, she's been his crush for the past few years and couldn't even think about hurting her in any way. All this time he's watched as she'd gone through guys that weren't even worth a penny; Faran was beautiful enough to have any guy in the school yet she chose the worst guys. Maybe it wasn't on choice but they always wanted only one thing from her and nothing else. It was horrible watching the same things happen over and over.

By then Faran had already went out of view and he missed his chance. Perhaps he should get over her since he knew she didn't even know his name. Now that she had her sights set on Jason Potter he didn't have a chance. Surprisingly he was actually a good guy, Cygnus should be happy she'd chosen someone worthwhile. Maybe he'd make her happy where he couldn't.

All these emotions were getting him down and distracting him, so he pushed them aside and jogged off, the opposite way of Faran not wanting to duel her.

XXX Hermione's POV XXX

All of them were very capable and determined to win that. She could see it in how they reacted to one another, but she was shocked when she saw Black didn't shoot at Twix. What was going on in his head? Perhaps there was something she'd missed? Did they know each other? Hermione seriously doubted it since Faran never mentioned it. She filed that away for later under interesting information.

Looking across her little man-made jungle she sighed. It was good that they were willing to fight each other but there was a lesson to be learned in this game and she wanted to see if anyone could figure it out. The only true way to win this game was to team up with someone. That way they could fight or protect from both sides, maybe even switch off and on. Although they would have to fight at the end didn't matter, it was those who paired up which she would see as the true winners. If they can't learn to cooperate or think with their heads not wands during hard times then they won't be able to survive a war or anything like it. Thought it may not come now, it'll come soon enough.

Another three lights shot up and Broc Risin, Trilla Longbottom, and Harry Grindor were out. Flicking her wand she sent them to the safe zone and continued watching. Each of their duelers sneaked away to find another prey. It was actually amusing to watch them fight each other, to find out their weaknesses and quirks. She figured out that Demetri Rosier favored the spell Glacius to freeze his opponents; Perrin liked Immobulus and Confundo, plus many others and their favorites.

One of the twin Weasleys was an absolutely amazing dueler, using her head just as much as her powerful spells. She seemed well learned and knew how to use it. Though the one thing she didn't do was defend much, Hermione noticed that she tended to end the fights early. It could be that her defense charms are weak and knowing that she ended battles quickly. Hermione smiled, that was the next lesson she decided. Knowing your own strengths and weaknesses then overcoming them with hard work and dedication.

Perrin engaged in a fight with Cygnus Black and white lights shot from each of their wands towards the other. It was looking down for Perrin when a third fighter came into view and attack Cygnus with a Petrificus Totalis curse which caused a light to flash above them. Alphonse and Perrin dueled it out while grinning at each other good naturedly. Perrin won as Alphonse was hit with an Incarcerous spell tying him up with ropes. Hermione transferred Al to the safe area and watched as others dueled.

It wasn't long before there was one person standing. The Room of Requirements she'd imagined hadn't been that big so they were all facing each other almost every second just how you would in a war. The last two duelers fighting were Draco and one of the twins. Figures that Draco would be left standing, he was in the war after all.

Draco shot Glacius at her and it narrowly missed the redhead as she flew to the side. They'd been so far evenly matched but she knew Draco would win. With all his Slytherin wits he would, though they were matched in power her defenses we weak and he would take it to his full advantage. As she got up he flew unending spells her way making her off balance and a bit shaken. The redhead finally stood her ground with a good Protego and sent flying rocks shooting at him using Wingardium Leviosa.

With a powerful protection charm he dismissed the rocks and shot Stupefy towards her which she sidestepped. Suddenly a magical trap surrounded her and she screamed in frustration, she'd been tricked. Draco smirked smugly as he taunted her through the walls by sticking out his tongue. Hermione rolled her eyes at his childishness but transported her out of it and looked towards Draco with a knowing smile.

"Congratulations, you won!" A wave caused the jungle to disappear and them all to be surrounded by chairs and couches which all of them sat in immediately. With a sigh she noticed that none of them had paired up, "Unfortunately no one got the real reason for this lesson. The ones who know that they might not be powerful magically could have banded up and taken the stronger. Or even vice versa. All of you are good duelers even some that are great, but a great dueler can be taken down by a _good_ thinker. Use your heads not your wands! There will be times in life that your wands can't save you. I want you to learn there is more out there than power." She looked at each and every one of them with, as Ron used to put it, her mother face. "My saying is knowledge is power. You should take this into account. Now, I'm very proud of you all regardless. All were wonderful and before the end of each session I want to play this game so you'll get better at this. It's getting late so I hope you all had fun and before we go I have to deactivate the spell."

They all nodded in acquisition and watched silently as she did a few flicks with her wand and turned to smile at them. "To make it not suspicious I've made a portal outside the door so go one at a time. It will transport you to somewhere in the castle that's rarely walked in so as not to startle anyone. Good night!"

Daendra passed her and smiled warily, "that was brilliant. Loved it, it was good fun." Faran bounced by her still energetic and nodded her goodbyes while dragging Jason Potter with her. He half smiled at her as she pulled him along. One by one they filed out of the room her friends pausing to talk with her before leaving, even a few people she'd just met until it was just Perrin and her.

Putting his arms around her he gave her a light kiss, "you were amazing."

Snorting Hermione laughed, "What standing up on a platform while you guys dueled it out?" Zerxim laughed along with her when she explained it like that.

"No silly. The way you have with people is almost breathtaking. It's one of the reasons why I like you." He looked into her caramel eyes smiling lightly and brushed a straggle of hair out of her face gently as she gave him a confused look.

"What way with people?"

"You know," he shrugged, "people seem to follow you naturally. People _want_ to be around you just to be there. It's like your aura has a life of its own. I don't know it's hard to explain."

"I'm glad you think so. Too bad everyone doesn't feel that way." Hermione looked away darkly, after earlier this night just thinking of Riddle put her in a bad mood. Why was he so judgmental of everything she did? Thinking about him reminded her of what she needed to do, but it was getting harder every day to do. There was a part of her that she didn't want to admit felt sorry for him. How would she have turned out if she went through what he did?

Shaking those thoughts off Hermione smiled up at Perrin, "Let's go. I'm tired and it's been a long day." Perrin nodded at her but didn't say anything. He had caught the feeling she didn't really want to talk and walked her to the Head's Room. When he kissed her she pushed against him and relished the moment of peace she felt before she let go and reality hit her… like it always did.


End file.
